evagabourel

Written by Eva Gabourel in August 2015

Once upon a time, there was a young girl who got good grades and loved school because she enjoyed learning and she had a lot of friends there. None of her friends knew that she was poor because she always had her books, she always wore a neatly ironed uniform, she was always on time to school, and she was always the top student of her class.
Nobody knew that her parents struggled to make ends meet and that registration, books and uniforms were paid for using money from either luckily winning the lottery or from a well-paid job that her father who was a mechanic got to do at the last minute. None of her friends knew that she would never invite them to her home because she was ashamed that the roof leaked when it rained and some of the floor boards were rotten and you had to be careful how you walked on them.
This little girl had a mother who would do anything for her 3 children. She would go hungry if it meant her kids got to eat. Her mother was a housewife but she would bake and sell cakes if it meant making money to make sure her daughters got an education and that her mentally disabled and epileptic son had his medication. The little girl learned to love and appreciate God and to always trust in Him because her mother taught her that God really does answers prayers and that people who strive to always treat others with love and respect are always blessed.
On her graduation from primary school, the little girl could not get a new dress or a new pair of shoes because her parents could not afford it. The mother altered one of her own dresses for her daughter to use and luckily her daughter had big feet and the mother’s shoes could fit her too. The mother was so pleased of her accomplishments and that her beloved daughter would have something to wear for graduation after all. The little girl could not bear to tell her mother that she thought the dress was ugly and would be embarrassed to be seen in it. Instead, she just never took off her graduation gown for the pictures that were taken after the ceremony.
When the little girl went to high school, her living situation remained the same and maybe even got worse, but again, nobody ever knew. Her father drank a little too much and people hardly took their cars for him to fix anymore because he took too long to complete the jobs. She continued to do well in school. She kept on studying hard and she was always thankful to God and for her parents who tried their best to make sure she had an education. Then, when she was in third form and only 15 years old, tragedy unexpectedly struck. Her mother died suddenly. The young girl and her sister were devastated. All their lives their mother had been their rock and she did everything for them; cooked meals, cleaned their rooms, combed their hair, helped with homework – anything you can think of. The girls were forced to do all this on their own, it was a tough time. The young girl kept getting good grades, she did if for herself but she was even more determined to do it for her mother, her mother had always told her how she hoped and wished she would be the valedictorian of her high school.
Then 9 months later, tragedy struck yet again. The young girl, still 15 years old lost her younger sister. She died of a broken heart they say, a heart attack at 12 years old because she could not get over losing their mother. The young girl was devastated beyond words but with the help of her friends and especially God, she got through the toughest time in her life. She was not sure how, but she remained strong and she kept doing great in school. She graduated as valedictorian of her high school, just as her mother had wished and as she too had worked so hard for all her life.
Because she was the valedictorian, she got a full scholarship to go to sixth form. She continued to excel in her studies there. Ever since she was a kid she had thought that she wanted to become a teacher when she grew up but during internship at sixth form she had the opportunity to teach a few classes at a local high school and figured out that teaching was not what she wanted to do after all. She didn’t know at all what she was going to be since that didn’t work out but she did not get discouraged. After graduation she got a job as a receptionist, then moved on to being an accounts clerk, then a personal assistant and today she is a logistics coordinator at the only producing oil company in Belize. And she is happy with her life and where she is today. She misses her mom and her sister but she has learned that life goes on and that life has still been good to her regardless of her trials and tribulations. She financially takes care of her father who is now 77 years old and her older mentally disabled brother. She has a lot of godchildren, but still no children of her own. She is thankful to God every day for her life and for her blessings.
That young girl is me.
So what is the moral of my story?
To work hard
To pray hard, and to never question the will of God
To go after what you want with passion and with determination and always believe that it will be given to you
To always be grateful and appreciative of those you love, no matter how long or how short you have with them
To always know what your values are and to live up to them
To enjoy life, and to treasure the happy moments, the fun moments, the good moments
To cry when you need to but to never ever let your past define who are because dwelling on the past and worrying about what could have been ruins your present and your future
To always know that you are soooo much more than you think you are capable of
You cannot change the past you can only learn from it so you have to let it go and treasure the wonderful memories and embrace the challenges of the future
My personal values were and still are (in no particular order): God, excellence, gratitude, love, friendship, family, honesty, kindness, humility, and laughter.