I feel more as a student from this school as I´ve spent the year attending to yoga, zumba, English and computer classes. Let me change the switch to the parent mode!
Sofía, you know that, because of my job, we have to spend many months separate every year and, although my official pose is to remain cool… “it´s ok, you´ll see, I´ll be back soon, sweetie, it´s only a couple of weeks,…”
in the intimacy of this moment I can confess that it is also always been heart breaking and that I´ve always missed you very very much. And, that´s why, this time last year daddy and me decided to come to Ireland to spend a “100%-mummy-year” with the acceptable excuse of learning English while living an irish adventure. You know, in a lifetime, the years you are going to spend with us are not that many, hopefully,…cause.. that´s the way it has to be, so I decided I didn´t want to lose any more precious time with you.
You are already big enough to take your own decisions but we took this one for you and, although you were upset to leave your friends, school and family behind, we asked you to trust us. After a hard beginning 10 months later you are upset, again, cause we are going back to Spain and we ask you, again, to trust us.
It is easy to give you an example of this trust if I remind you the day Luis came home relieved because Paul had told him that the world was not going to end on last year´s 12th of December. The confidence he showed was so contagious that we were all relieved as well.
Trust us. Confía en nosotros mi amor. It´s all I can say, you know, you were born with the most wonderful smile someone can dream of but you were not born with an instruction booklet as I´ve heard kids in other countries do 😉 we have only our common sense to guide us, our intuition… well, that, and the popular scientific method: test, error, test, result, test, uhm, try again, test reset, mayday mayday…
You and me both know that coming to Ireland has proved to be a great idea. My feeling is that we´ve reached the point when I start a sentence and you could finish it cause you know so well what I think that it´s even scary. I see my role now different. I have to help you find inspiring people that make you grow while I witness and continue to accompany your life´s path. And this inspiring people we have found here in Belmayne, in the ET priceless school. From your wonderful teacher Johanne to the principal, Sinead, the secretary Paula, and the rest of the team and the amazing families we´ve met, invaluable. We have received kindness and pampering here for the rest of our lifes.
You cannot wait for things to happen you have to make them happen, no matter what effort behind. Taking risks is fun.
How on earth could we have guessed that we would learn so much from the school curricula. We thought we were coming to learn English, Maths and Celtic History and we finish the school year with much more useful tools for life. Let me list some of the subjects we´ve had this year:
1) Hurling, gaelic, rugby: lost on the pitch
2) Freezing cheer leading
3) “All different all the same” or how to locate on a map your classmates origins
4) Surviving with very little English or the power of a smile as a communication weapon
5) How to distinguish what´s important from what is not or the ability to “always look on the bright side of life”
6) 100 ways to spend a rainy afternoon
7) How to transform from a quiet shy girl to an enthusiastic teenager
And those are only some of the examples…
What we wish you and wish your friends on a day like this and from now on is very well explained on a famous irish blessing I first heard on daddy´s graduation many years ago (I´m wondering now if that´s unconsciously what brought me to Ireland the very first time). On a free version it goes like this:
May you be poor in misfortunes and rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the road rise up to meet you, and
May the wind always be at your back.
