My Colorful Adventure

When people said the word paintball the image that came to my mind was someone in a ridiculous uniform, sweaty and injured. The idea of going to a paintball field never crossed my mind because everyone said “it’s a guy’s thing, besides everyone gets hurt at the end”. I forgot about that sport, or whatever it was, and never thought of it again until I was in freshman year in high school.

February, 2009, it was one of my friends’ birthday. As I read the invitation I noticed it said: “come and join me to celebrate my birthday in Campo Gotcha”. At that moment I remembered all the bad things paintball include, injuries, sweat and ugly uniforms with bad smell. I was sad because I really wanted to spend that day with my friends but there was no way I was going to that horrible place.

When I got home I showed the invitation to my mom and to my surprise she didn’t told me not to go, on the contrary, she wanted me to go. She told me it was an incredible experience and that it was very fun. I was like, “yea right, being hit by a paintball sounds like the funniest thing on earth, no way!” After thinking about it over and over again, I decided maybe I should go. “I am not a coward”, I repeated to myself, “Besides, mom says it’s fun”. So that was when I decided to go to what was going to be an amazing experience or the worst in my whole life. I guess I was a little dramatic at that time but I was nervous.

While my friends and I were in the car everyone sounded so excited about playing and there was a moment when I actually felt excited too. It was going to be an adventure! Well, my adventure didn’t start as well as I thought. We had to use a big uniform that smelled like men’s sweat and a very uncomfortable mask. There was a lady at the entrance with a whistle; and every time you didn’t pay attention to her safety instructions she would blow that thing as hard as she could and then scream. I had never heard any person on this Earth scream the way she did! One of the men who worked there gave us our guns and explained us the basic rules in order to play. “Rule number one, and the most important, never take the mask off while playing; rule number two, never shoot someone who is too close to you; and never take the gun’s secure off when you are out of the field or you can hurt someone”. As I entered the field I was trying to calm myself down. They were my friends and I was sure they were not going to hurt me. Then I realized that my face was all covered and I had this big, green Santa Clause like, uniform. Nobody was going to know it was me they were shooting! I froze and didn’t move during the entire first battle. I was so scared I faked someone hit me so I could leave that horrible place. But things started to get better in the next fight. I convinced myself I could do it, fear was not going to keep me from having fun. I started shooting and running and in a blink of an eye everything turned out from horrible to fun. My heart was pounding very fast as I ran across the field and I felt like a hero. It was amazing. Even thought those paintballs do hurt a lot, at that moment I didn’t care. All I was thinking about was how much I was enjoying myself.

When it was over I was feeling very tired but it was the kind of tiredness you feel when you have spent all day long doing something you enjoy. My jeans were a mess, full of mud, dirt and weird plants that had attached to me for being that much time on the ground. My body was full of paint of different colors; I looked like a colorful collage, even my teeth were blue because of the paintballs. But it was all right, I didn’t care about my clothing, besides those things happen all the time when you go on adventure, I think. I loved this experience and I still go to Campo Gotcha every once in a while. I confess I still get nervous at the beginning, but I always say to myself, “Don’t let fear keep you from having fun”.

Dealing With Factorization

I always said that in my brain there was not room for Math because it was full with other important things.  Every time we had a test I felt like dying, numbers just wouldn’t help me. I hated Mathematics! During class I tried to pay attention but it seemed like the teacher was speaking Chinese to me; with all those numbers, multiplications and subtractions I got lost and started to think about everything but the class. I just thought about how weird, boring and lame Math was. Why did Pythagoras enjoyed it? Math is hard and no one should like it, or at least that is what I thought.

Last year I was in second grade and Math was extremely hard for me. I don’t know how I managed to pass the class. It turned even harder when my teacher said: “We will start to practice factorization” with a mischievous smile. All my classmates were excited about learning factorization but I wasn’t. I wanted to die, if fractions were hard for me how was I going to handle factorization? Even the name was puzzling for me.  I had heard a lot of students saying factorization was the hardest topic in Math ever. My teacher assigned each of us an investigation about a specific factorization topic. To my surprise, mine was the easiest one so I understood it perfectly and received a good grade in that assignment.

The test was coming and it was going to be hard, all factorization cases mixed up, not only mine. I was scared and nervous; I even started to bite my pencil. When I received the test all I could see were a bunch of numbers mixed up with letters.  I repeated myself: “Don’t worry Mariana, you can get through this. Just focus!” But my time was precious at that moment and I kept wasting it trying to understand the first problem. I was about to give up when a light bulb moment showed up. I understood in that precise moment that my case related with the others. I finished my exam quicker than I expected and gave it to my teacher. What had just happened? I couldn’t believe what had occurred. How did I understand everything in just a minute? Feeling proud, and amazed at the same time, of myself; I realized Math wasn’t that horrible. My teacher returned the exams, and I have to confess I felt nervous. As I was approaching to my teacher to pick up my test, thoughts began to appear in my head. Maybe my exam was so bad I finished first; or maybe I did well and that was the reason I did it fast. I took a deep breath and took the test while my teacher gave me a big smile. I flip the paper back and saw a 90. At that moment I felt like a little kid inside, I was so happy. I exclaimed “Wow! Is this really my grade?” My teacher just smiled again as I returned to my seat more than happy and satisfied.

Today I am still good at factorization. Sometimes I struggle to get it right but I no longer think there is no room in my brain for Math. I have a new teacher, and even though at the beginning it was hard for me to understand him, now he explains everything very good. Whenever I feel frustrated I remember that day, and how I could figure things out.  Thanks to that light bulb moment I understood it is just about paying attention and focusing; sometimes numbers and letters can even be fun. Math is essential in life. You use it for almost every career in the world and also in the daily life. Now I don’t see Math as the worst class ever, I see it as a challenge I should overcome with focus and a lot of concentration.

Prejudging My Best Friend

It was January, 2009 and it was my first day in high school. I was super nervous that morning. I woke up earlier than what I had planned because for me high school was a new challenge. I mean, I was about to face new teachers, new uniforms, different classrooms and most important, new people that hopefully will become my friends.

I saw many unknown faces that morning, but everyone approached and introduced themselves very kindly. But it wasn’t until recess that I met someone that changed my way to see friendship.

“Hi my name is Cristian” he said with a very shy voice. I didn’t pay much attention to him because I thought he was going to be just like any other guy. The kind of guy that makes fun of others just for fun, or that enjoys drinking and smoking. The idea of becoming his friend never crossed my mind at that moment, because I was just thinking all the bad characteristics he might have. I just answered with an uninterested voice “Ah, nice to meet you”. That was the whole conversation, and since he didn’t say anything else, I just left with my friends. I never spoke to him again in the entire year because, for me, he wasn’t a big deal.

Last year I found out he was in my same classroom. I actually didn’t care, thinking he wasn’t going to change anything about my perception about him. Well, I was super wrong! My desk was right in front of his and we started talking and talking, until everyone was tired of hearing our voices and laughter. That day I regretted being so stupid the day I met him, I regretted a hundred times not taking the time to get to know him better at recess the first day of high school, because if I hadn’t judged him before I met him our friendship would’ve started before. The cool thing of our friendship is that, since then, it started really fast.  I remember saying to myself “Take it easy Mariana, you just met the guy”, but I couldn’t help it, I loved talking to him.

Today he is still one of my best friends and I am extremely grateful with God he sent me an angel like Cristian to be the light of my days and one of the main reasons they change from being bored to amazing. It is difficult for me to write about someone that special, especially when that someone cannot be described with simple words. I know he is human and he can’t be perfect, but he knows how to make his imperfections almost invisible.

I love the way we can talk about anything not even caring how ridiculous our conversation might be or what others think. When I am with him I actually feel safe, like if everything will be okay. The best thing about him is the way his whole face lights up when he smiles. I think that’s the main reason I keep saying funny things, so I can make that beautiful smile appear. I trust him completely. We know every way of making each other see how important we are. I remember being sad one day and he knew exactly what to do to make all my troubles vanish. Even though I love him, we fight a lot! We can fight about music, movies even food, but he is so sweet I can’t stay mad at him for too long.

I always say eyes are the windows of one’s heart and Cristian’s eyes are beautiful! I don’t mean only their color, but also, the sweet, soft expression they have. If you stare at them you really can  see kindness, sincerity and honesty. He is very unique and different from any other person I’ve ever met. His capacity of making everyone laugh and feel better about any pain they are dealing with, makes him the best candidate for a best friend. This for me is hard because everyone wants to be his friend and I tend to get jealous when he is not with me, but I understand he is free to have lots of friends so they can also share an amazing friendship with him as I do.

 I learned that prejudging Cris only made me lose many days of his friendship but I am  super happy I could fix that mistake. I have lived many experiences sharing friendship with others but becoming Cristian’s friend has been the best. Every day I learn from him something new about life; I hope I can teach him some others. I only can say Cristian Morales is the best friend I could ever ask for and I’ll be thankful the rest of my life to see his bright smile as he says “Hello Marianux!”

Memories from Nonno's Home

Most people spend the majority of their childhood being baby sited by their grandparents. In my case I call them nonnos because it means grandpas in Italian and their house was like my second home. I spent there almost all of my day waiting for my parents to pick me up after their work. I really cannot complain about spending that much time with my grandparents, because, besides being the best nonnos I could ever ask for, their house was amazing; for me it was one of the coolest places on Earth! It was a very beautiful house situated in an incredible neighborhood. Everybody knew each other and they were all very kind.

From the street you could only see the big garage; I even remember the Rayo-Vac sticker that was pasted on the wall. But it was from the inside where the magic began! The inside was like a castle. It had this humongous lamp right at the center of the ceiling that made me feel like if I was entering Cinderella’s palace. It had a beautiful, elegant living room which was always full of my nonna’s funny friends. My nonna made me take my shoes off when I played there so the rough wouldn’t get ruin. The kitchen was simple but at the same time very clean and neat. There was always something delicious to eat cooked by the maid and nana Maria. I sat on the table and waited excited for my meal and I always finished it satisfied. There was a very special room, it was my favorite. From the outside you could see how shiny and elegant it was. You could see a lot of crystal objects in that room and they were brilliant! I felt like a princess in there, everything was just so delicate and sparkly.

One of the main rooms in the house was, obviously, my nonno’s bedroom. I still can feel the smell of my nonno’s cologne and the safe I felt when I watched movies with him in his sofa. My nonna says that I loved to wear her perfumes and put on her shoes. I guess I wanted to look as elegant and beautiful as she did. There was a little balcony that faced the yard. My parents and my uncles watched my cousins; my sister and I play and create our imaginary world. There was only one room I didn’t like in the house; the storage room, which was hidden behind the stairs. My older sister and I hated that room. It was very scary because it was dark and at the end you could see a Mona Lisa painting staring at you. We never visited that room.

As I was telling you before the neighbors that surrounded the house were all very kind. There was an old lady called Doña Lupe who had white her and a beautiful, warm smile that was my friends. I loved visiting her home with my nonna after we bought some candies on La Negrita store.

Times changed and everybody began to move to the modern areas of the city. After a while my nonnos decided that it was time to move here to Carretera al Salvador. I have the image of my nonna crying the day they moved but I didn’t understand why; I mean at least the idea of them being closer to us made me happy. Later I understood that I was never going to spend my days at Nonno’s place.

For the next few years I didn’t pay much attention to the change. I was happier than ever having all my family living close to me. One day my nonna asked me if I wanted to go with her to her old house to pick up the money from the rent the new owners have to pay. She hates when I say “your old house”. She says her previous home was my home as well and it is still as beautiful as ever. Well, that changed when we arrived. The neighborhood was empty like a dessert. When I enter the house I got scared. The house that once had been beautiful and elegant was now an office. An OFFICE! I could see all the computers in the room that once was my special, castle like, room. The living room was full of papers and boards and everything was just too noisy for me. As we were returning to the car I saw the beautiful lamp that was at the center of the ceiling broke. I felt weird it was a different sadness; maybe it wasn’t sadness; maybe it was anger! Yes, I was angry with those guys for destroying my home. Back in the car I asked my nonna what had happened, where were all my friends? She said they had moved to other neighborhoods. I asked were Doña Lupe was and she explained me she had passed away. I felt weird and at that time I didn’t know why. But now I know that I felt how a part of my childhood disappeared.

I have not visited that house since that day. I know it changed. Maybe I won´t find Doña Lupe sitting in her couch watching T.V. after going to the candy store. But I do have all the memories of my Nonno´s home, the house that was also my home.