When I was 17 and applied to be an exchange student, I wanted to go to Europe. Instead I was assigned to Brazil. Since then I've often thought that surely I got that assignment for a reason. I'm still waiting for the day that I'm able to save somebody's life, just for knowing Portuguese. But, the closer I get to 7/12/17, I think maybe that day will never come. Maybe I'll never know why I learned Portuguese.
Maybe it's not for anything heroic. Maybe knowing Portuguese, or just having the experience shaped me in a way that made me more interesting and thereby enabled my husband to be drawn to me. And from there my kids exist and maybe they will do something significant. Or maybe I've affected somebody and didn't know it. Maybe someone in Brazil is different for me having been there. Knowing Portuguese allowed me to get jobs speaking Spanish, including my current job as an aide to ninth grade students. I'd like to think that somewhere, across a whole school year and forty students plus, I had a positive, lasting effect on someone. And if that was my whole purpose in life - I guess I'd call that success.
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