A lesson: Things don't always go as expected.

6 months ago

Has it ever happened to you that you have your day rigorously planned and then everything goes as you least expected? Well, I think that happened to me this Saturday to the extreme.

I got up early to write in my journal. Despite being just awake I felt the weight of many worries in my mind and I needed to let them out. Writing has become a faithful companion on these occasions, and this is one of the habits that I enjoy the most in my day to day. Then I did breathing exercises to meditate and I felt ready to start with my daily activities.

I dedicated half an hour to my French lessons on Duolingo. My goal was just to complete the daily challenges and, without realizing it, I completed the challenge of the month of June and the challenge in pairs with my friend Daniela. These small achievements gave me the serotonin I would need later.

My parents had to go out to buy food and other things we needed. To help them, I stayed at home and washed all the clothes we used during the week. Later I cleaned and organized our home. (Attached photo of my third world clothesline 😂).

Doing housework doesn't bother me at all. As I have been growing up I have also understood how important it is to help my parents, and I have seen how this positively influences everyone's vibe on a daily basis. However, the real reason I prioritized all this work was because I wanted to go see a play in the afternoon.

This stridently titled book ("Porn, or fermenting meat with more meat until it tastes better") is a play by the playwright Juan Edilberto Sosa. He also directs the stage experimentation group La Caja Negra and this week they are premiering the work. I must admit that I have read the book more than three times. The way John writes is different, and so is this work. His name is only a justification for a much larger conflict, of a very complex moral depth, playing with our perception of what is really right or wrong in the world. Last Thursday and Friday they made presentations of the work, but I could not attend because I was busy with other activities. In short, I felt that yes or yes this Saturday was the day.

So I was getting ready very happy when one thing started to worry me: the sky was starting to get cloudy. My parents hadn't arrived yet, but I thought they would be in time to pick up the clothes in case it rained. I went out without even worrying about taking an umbrella... When I had advanced two blocks I felt the drops on my face and ran back out. My adrenaline levels shot up while I was picking up each piece, luckily the rain was still not very heavy and nothing got completely wet. Once finished, I took a breath, this time I did take an umbrella and went out again.

I was in a hurry because with the setback I had been running late. I arrived almost sweating at the venue of the presentation, and at that moment I was met only by the custodians of the establishment. It happens that the play was canceled because several of the actors in the group had fallen ill, and since the news was very recent there was no time to notify. A little sad and discouraged I was on my way back home. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, the situation did get worse. The rain that had stopped for a moment was now coming back with much more force and with electric shocks included. Terrified, I managed to take refuge in the entrance of a building, while I watched as the water overflowed the streets. It was half an hour later that I was able to restart the march.

Once in the comfort of my room I tried to cheer myself up. However, it is difficult to be resilient in moments like this, when you have tried very hard to achieve something and when you think you will achieve it, it disappears in your hands. I didn't avoid feeling sad: if I've learned anything, it's that no matter the nature of emotions, whether they feel good or bad, it's necessary to give them their space to process them (and after a few minutes, as if by magic, the shock disappears). By the time my parents arrived, about ten minutes after I did, I was already feeling better, and when I saw them I was much more encouraged. We talked about how annoying the rain had been for our plans, we joked about it and the laughs we shared restored my well-being.

Then I said to myself: the fact that I can't go out is not going to stop me from enjoying my time. As I am an inveterate lover of coffee and literature, taking a book becomes a reflex action. I read several short stories from "Montevideanos", a collection of short stories written by Mario Benedetti, and I also started reading "Under Pressure" by Erick J. Mota, whose pdf I got from the author's own hands.

Not only did I spend some time feeling comfortable with myself, I also had the opportunity to chat with my friends, I had ideas for new projects that I want to undertake, and I even started singing in the company of my playlist. Things do not always go as we wish, but it is in our power to decide how to react to these situations and take alternatives for our improvement. That was the lesson that gave me this dreadful Saturday.