Growing up I always had this dream to come to America. The question I always had was, how in the world am I going to do that? My parents were not the type of parents that would travel, even in Puerto Rico they did not go out and adventure. We were not the type of family that went on vacation. Their vacation time was spent at home.
I always heard some of my classmates talk about their summer vacations, which must of the time were to Disney. I love hearing about it, but to be honest with you that wasn’t my dream. Never care about Disney World.
I have always been a person that sees opportunities in problems and obstacles. I guess that’s how I was either brought up or wired, I don’t have a definite answer about why I was that way, well still I’m that way.
I believed it was 1993 when my brother had broken up with his girlfriend, his high school sweetheart. I remember when she left. She moved to United States. Guess what happened at that time? My brother couldn’t see himself without her. He was just devastated and decided to pursue her and work things out and move to united States with her.
Omg! Now I am devastated. My brother is leaving us? Im so happy for him because to be honest with you we didn’t get along all that much, but still he is my brother and we lived under the same roof. However I wished him well and I also was excited for his new chapter.
After all of that soap opera going on which I couldn’t stand, because frankly I hate drama, and I still do, my dad lost his job. So there was adversity going on in our family. It really wasn’t anything to be worry about but my mom had said to me there was a possibility that she was not going to be able to get me back to private school for my senior year if my dad didn’t have his job back.
Wow, how in the world am I going to be able to go to public school after being in private school all my life? I knew I didn’t belong there, eventhough I had friends that went to public school, there were not many though, but they really were private school potential. Meaning that they were just like me. We had same values, same opportunities but the only thing that made them different from me was that their parents didn’t have the financial resources but we were able to connect to the same level. I don’t know if you will understand where I am coming from. I am not saying anything bad about people that went to public school. The public school system in my area was just not made for me nor my family. Thats all im saying. I had other family members that went to public school and are great people and still have same values,, however public school in my area was not an option for me. I just could not relate to most of the people that were in public school period. A lot of them came from broken families, the projects and their vision and mine was just not in alignment.
So, here I am in the middle of trying to decide, well do I try to make it in public school or do I try to purse my childhood dreams? Hummm?. That’s was a no brainer, don’t you think?
I remember just like it was yesterday going to my mom’s office and seating in front of her desk and say to her, mom I want you to buy me a plane ticket, I’m moving with my brother to United States. ( And there was silence).
I didn’t stutter, I didn’t feel my eyes blink a bit, this was a decision that it had to be made right away. My poor mother was so shocked. This haven’t even been discussed with my brother. He was going to be a newlywed. There is a lot of things that needed to be thought through but for whatever reason that was nothing for this 17 year old girl worry about.
My mom bought my ticket. The rest of this happy ending is history.
Every time I have to make decisions in life I always go back to that little girl who had a dream. That girl that always dreamed to come to America, learn English and go to college and see the other side of the world. John Maxwell said on his leading through crisis mastermind group, “You are not made in a crisis, you are revealed.”
This was a very hard decision to make and I sure made it. When you have decisions to make always think about what your guts tells you. Always go with what your dreams are. Do not let anyone ever crash your dreams, your future, your potential. If you do, you will regret it and you may resent other people.
Everytime I see problems or crisis again I look for opportunities and in some of my future blogs I’m going to share with you what I have done. John Maxwell defines a crisis as “an intense time of difficulty requiring a decision that will be a turning point.”
People may think I’m lucky, some people may think I’m high maintenance, some people may think I’m conceded when in reality I’m always in the background working hard so when problems, adversity, hard times or whatever you want to call it show up, I look at it in a positive way and take things seriously as an opportunity and make the best out of it. I love this quote “Adaptable leaders can John Maxwell says, turn adversity into advantage”. This is how I have been so successful in my life. This is how I have been able to live a pretty happy and healthy life that I am not willing to change for noone.
God bless,
Jani
http://www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/janitzarivera
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