A teachable moment V2

I had never imagined that gaining consciousness would be a marvel, to be able to understand that you exist, that you live in an unknown world. Full of mysteries that I would eventually find. This memory marks the beginning of my history as a human being. Being with my family during the chilly winter, the last winter together as a united family, they decided to celebrate my sixth birthday with a slice of pizza, one of the most delicious pizzas in all of Brooklyn. But to get such a slice we had to face a cold December day, the floor was impossible to walk, the wind that cuts your body like razors, but my parents would not leave the opportunity to eat that pizza. I even wonder why they wanted to eat it. And especially on such a chilly day, it was common sense to stay at home where winter cannot bother us, we would be together and sheltered with hot chocolate.

But I was in my own world and, suddenly felt the urge to return home, it was too much for a 6-year-old, but it was already a fact that we were outside, so let us walk through the snow. Halfway my body lost balance and in a second my face crashed against the frozen floor, at that moment my mind discovered the perception of existence, it was me on the ground, my parents laughing and at the same time worried about me, I had realized how small I was next to them,  how weak my body was, and just like that I notice that my perception of gravity was a lie. Childish innocence in thinking that if my feet left the ground, I would go to the sky but discover that everything that goes up must fall.

The emotions of crying, screaming with anger and sadness, getting up to hug or to yell at my parents, because it was humiliating that they had laughed at me all the time! However, I forgave them, and I had already left that to the past, but suddenly a lady had slipped and fell on the train tracks. Everyone was scared because in the distance a train was approaching the station, all the witnesses went to work, some oversaw notifying the authorities, others decided to signal to the driver to stop the train, others dared to pick up the lady and others were waiting for her to position her at the station. Beautiful teamwork, everyone decided to help a stranger, and even my own parents were more merciful to her than to their own son!?

The lady grateful to all the people who helped her to get out of that situation, police and first aid arrived to deal with her complaints and injuries, the train arrived at the station and the driver smiling knowing that such a problem did not become a sad tragedy. At the end we took the train and arrived at the last station of the L train, Canarsie. What a beautiful area, where restaurants from various parts of the world turned into empty buildings, businesses are still standing, but on the verge of bankruptcy, miraculously the pizza stand is still open for business. There are rare occasions that I take the train to eat a slice of pizza, for the simple fact that every time I dare to go, I get my childhood memories, that day where I turned 6 years old, where that moment gained consciousness and that was the last moment we ate together as a family.

After that day in December 2006, we moved in Mexico in a small town in the state of Oaxaca “El Porvenir” a beautiful small town where there is no chilly winter, most of the time it is warm in the days and cold at night. I was in Mexico for 10 years, I forgot how to speak, write, and read in English. I grew up like anyone else who lived in this area, learning to work the land, creating friendships, falling in love with my culture as a Mexican, I learned to forget my life in New York City, to the point of having forgotten being an American completely, now I am a Mexican. By this point you will realize that my parents separated, I grew up in a unique environment to the point of learning how to live in it with another family and nation. But I still could not forget that winter and that hot slice of pizza.

What I want to say is that life can change in many ways, life offers adventures and risks, beautiful and unforgettable moments, they are sad moments that you want with all your strength to forget without success. Every time I go to Canarsie, my memories raise the desire to travel to the past and repeat it a million times, but yet time never stops, time humbles us to know that life is one and we must know how to appreciate every second until our time has come, that moment will be cold as winter and our brain will repeat all our beautiful and painful memories in an instant,  That moment maybe we wish to start again but in the end you will realize that it is just a dream, the sense of reality is something I had never thought of obtaining, the realization that everything had a beginning and a conclusion. Maybe after I have drafted this story I will take the next train to Canarsie, it would be the last time or not, go back to the past, but this time it would be alone, alone with that memory.