All people have a great love or experience a special love. In my case, the first time I felt truly loved was when my daughter was two years old. At that time, I felt the purest and truest love. I remember the day very clearly. It was a Tuesday. I was sitting in my parents’ …
Tag: Ecuador
My Angel
I wish to see you one more time
Come and tell me how you are
Day by day and night by night
I hope to see you in every star
Hot Chocolate and Empanadas
When I was a child, my mother and I lived alone. She worked in a pharmacy, but the money was never enough because my father did not send us any money. We used what she earned to pay the rent, but there was not much left over.
A Gift: A Diary
When I was 11 years old, I started a new life at a new school, and it was great, but I was scared because everything had changed. I still remember how I met my best friend. Nobody talked to me in the classroom because I was a new student, and everyone had a group. However, …
Goodbye to This Year
* I moved to the United States with my two daughters three years ago. I came from Ecuador. The day I left my country, I remember feeling nostalgic and sad because my parents and my youngest brother kept waiting until my daughters and I went to the counter for the check-in and then entered the …
Why They Called Me Mercedes
My name is Gloria Mercedes Parra.
They call me Miche, Merceditas, Meche.
People who know me call me Mama Michisita because that’s what they used to call my grandmother.
The Light of a Survivor
Deep in the intimacy of my soul, full of darkness, fears, and sorrows, there is a tiny light of hope, a very thin but strong string that suspends me in the infinite waves of my despair and doesn’t let me fall all the way down. It is this little force inside that helps me overcome the tumbling days of my history. It leads me to go forward one more day, to continue on the road; it makes me accept my mistakes, defeat my fears and convert my sorrows into calm. It turns me into a survivor.
The Golden Bike
During the weekends of my childhood in La Troncal, Ecuador, I rode my bike with my friend and neighbor, Jackie. My bike was old, black, small, and slow. I always came in last place whenever Jackie and I raced. Even with all my effort to pedal, I never won. Jackie’s bike was a shiny golden …
Mamita Charo
When I was a child, I lived with my grandmother. For me, she was my mother. She was an amazing person. She worked so hard. She prepared food to sell in the flea market. Her name was Rosa Matilde, but her friends called her Mama Charo. She took care of me because my mom was …
My First Diving Experience
It was October 2011, and after more than a year of living on the Galapagos Islands—a very special place to know—I felt curious to explore the underwater world. A friend who has a scuba diving school was encouraging me to take the course for an Open Water certification that was going to take place soon. …
Special
I believe all the mothers in this world are special because they change their whole life for their kids. They are in all the growth process and are in our childhood memories. Today I want to write about my favorite memory of my childhood. When I was four years old, my family and I went …
Breathe, Smile, and Live
Sometimes in life, there is a point where you are forced to stop and take a moment to look back and review all the things that you have been doing in your everyday life. It is in this moment that you are granted the space of realizing the truly important things in life: to breathe, …