Wanna learn Spanish? Just switch heads with a Mexican! Sorry…not that easy.
The older I get the more and more often I’m able to actually recognize the growth that is occurring during the moments of my suffering.
What exactly I mean by this is that I now have the awareness in the moment, that even when I’m experiencing pain, difficulty, or major challenges, my higher self continually reminds me that there will be fruit to bare from this experience in the future.
Over 30 summers ago I was approaching my last year at the university of California at Santa Cruz, getting ready(in theory, before ParView) to ride the NAFTA wave in Cali. You see, my Major was all geared towards that, as my focus was in Latin American and Latino studies with an emphasis on global economics, economic theory and history.
Since moving to California and started paying for, and being serious about school, I had gotten literally straight A’s. I only mention this because if you’ve read anything about my high school years, my report card would often spelled the name, EDDIEE or in some cases CADDIE, ha ha.
In High School, if I enjoyed the subject matter or if I thought the teacher was genuine and hard-working. I would sprinkle in an A or a B here and there just to keep everyone honest ha ha.
And if I didn’t make a major move to elevate my Spanish proficiency to fluency prior to the fall, I was about to revisit the type of report cards. I got in high school again, and I could not afford that at this point of my life. I had too much invested too far to fail now.
So I did what I had to do.
And what I could afford and pay for.
So I went to Guatemala for the summer and I lived with a Family for six weeks and I studied one-on-one with a Teacher for six hours a day, five days a week.
More importantly, I refused to speak any English with any tourist, Americans or Europeans, that would spot me a mile away and run to me as a linguistic oasis, or as a translator for their mundane needs.
I would ask gringos if they spoke to me in English: “is this an emergency?”
And if they said no, I replied in Spanish that I only speak Spanish.
I was doing all I could to stack the deck from the neuroscience standpoint and to get as much hardwiring in my brain as I could so that I would be ready to rock ‘n’ roll in my classes come fall.
And let me tell you this was one of the handful of the hardest things that I’ve ever done and I drew on this experience when I quit drinking as an example of the fact that I can do hard things.
I have the “do hard things muscles”.
The family I lived with was incredible and I especially remember with a tremendous amount of love and appreciation Lucy, who was our housekeeper, Chef, and second mother in the house that I lived with there in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala for those six weeks.
Every morning there was an equivalent of a rooster crowing in the kitchen of the main house as Lucy would make handmade tortillas every single day for the family and also for the about 10 women and men that would come at lunchtime into the informal lunch area that existed in the kitchen of the house. This is a very common practice throughout Mexico/Latin America is to operate what’s called a “comedor” out of your home and to charge a very nominal fee of a dollar or something like that for lunch.
Lucy’s food was incredible and there were always people lined up to come in and pay their small fee for a super hard lunch and those handmade tortillas.
The only way I could make a phone call was to go to the Guatemalan government phone company office and they had phones for international phone calls that you could pay to use. I did not own a credit card and I would have to pre-pay in cash and they would warn me with 30 seconds left when the call was going to be cut off based upon the money that I gave them, I usually had three minutes and I called my mom I think twice and my girlfriend at the time once.
I’ll never forget the first time I spoke with my mom and I could picture her where she was sitting at the dining room table while I was speaking to her the glow the smell, and all I wanted to do was to be at that table sitting with her far away from Guatemala.
This was way harder than I thought.
I was waking up in the middle of the night because I’d be speaking to people in Spanish in my dream and I wouldn’t know the word and I would panic and wake up. I would look the word up that woke me up and go back to sleep.
I was obsessed with learning Spanish.
By about the fourth week, however, I realized that this was sticking and I started to feel good that I was going to be in good shape by the time I got back to Santa Cruz, California.
I knew the real test of how this experiment worked out would happen in the kitchen at 99 bottles restaurant where the Mexican family of Sebastian from Queretaro Mexico specifically, held down every position from dishwasher to head chef and all spots in between.
My six weeks of study wrapped up nicely and I really enjoyed my time with my family there however it was time to get back home and get ready for my final year and to get to the finish line for that diploma.
First, I had to go to 99 bottles and see if I was ready.
For me, this was a dramatic moment and I don’t think that Sebastian and The Family really knew how much I was counting on their honest feedback.
I strolled right in to the kitchen through the bar, and when I walked in, literally everything stopped in the kitchen.
Burgers were burning fries, started to soak in the oil and the water for washing the dishes became tepid.
Sebastian with his long ponytail spun around surprised, and immediately shouted “OK Pinche Gringo!! Que tienes Bro???”
Translation: “Hey Nice American Man! Whatcha got?”
So basically, I laid it on him and crossed my fingers and hope for the best…..I told them in my very best Spanish grammar that:
“ I left you, Dear Sebastian two months ago, a scared pale gringo with hopes of speaking like you. To speak as an adult and no longer be restricted to my small vocabulary and limited understanding of grammar. I do hope that now, upon my return, I have made you proud and that you see my efforts were not in vain.”
Everybody’s eyes look like they were popping out of their heads, and Sebastien spoke for the group when he said loudly:
“A la Chingada, Hue! Cambiaste tu cabeza con un pinche Mexicano!! Es un milagro!!”
Translation: “Golly! What a surprise, it appears you have switched heads with a Mexican person, it’s a miracle!”
And we hugged and laughed.
I felt really proud.
So how did the story end?
I crushed my senior year.
My senior thesis was historic.
And I graduated with highest honors in the Major of LA and Latino Studies.
We can do hard things and self talk, and the ability to learn how to be your own cheerleader is the only way to have the courage to realize your own personal greatness.
It is important to recognize both the difficulty, and the fact that fear is a natural occurrence in situations like this.
However, fear is in us to protect us from danger.
Fear is not to be used as a limitation to pursuing your dreams and that’s when fear gets in the way and does not serve us.
To understand this, you need to be connected to your breath, and you need to develop your relationship with present moment awareness.
The more you demystify the nature of how YOU think you will feel that you can enjoy more control over your reactions.
You can build a life that is more representative of who you are and who your higher self is urging you to become.
We are all here to help each other, and to walk each other home.
Please let me know how I can help you as all I wish to do is elevate this community together so that we can shine our Attitude of Gratitude!
EVERY DAY:
Love
and
Gratitude
https://www.instagram.com/GratiDude_abides
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com/941.894.8030 Text me your celly-cell so I can build my database please…..
Thank you sincerely.
The G.I.F.T. Today
Grateful: for being a witness to a legendary golf shootout yesterday…LH3 hung a 67 with Double Eagle and Dave Noto made every putt offered on his 56th Birthday and shot a 63 at Grove Park Inn from the tips. Legendary.
Intention-be present in the moment even with a full agenda and travel
First-check out directions
Things-pack it up bro
CONFIRM YOUR SPOT TODAY PLEASE PEEPS AND PLAYERS, GET BETTER…..NOW!
DOUBLE DONATION MODEL; ONE NOW, THE OTHER WEEK 6 BASED UPON RESULTS
Every day, every way, grateful.
KC
I am here to help, add somebody that needs a “check up from the neck up”
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com
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