Enjoy Life

In 12th grade I was 17 years old, so during that time I was considered the best student in class. I was dedicated only to my studies. There was not any distraction in my mind. I was only focused on spending time doing my homework, searching for information, reviewing and studying my notes. Because of that, I got the valedictorian that year, and I was very proud of my self. What I had in mind was to get the best grades in classes, so that in the future I could get opportunities for a better education through scholarships and traveling to other places I didn’t know.

One of the things I didn’t like was to waste time in activities that were not related to school. For example, playing sports with my friends, talking with my family and neighbors. In the high school I had to stay in dorms at a boarding school. I spent most of my time in my dormitory.

The school was very close to my house (about 30 minutes walking), but I had a very busy schedule , so during the time at the school I didn’t see my family and friends very often.

One day, I was walking through the community, and I saw a big storm coming. I decided to wait out the storm. I was there about 5 minutes and I saw a bunch of kids coming to the football field. They were very happy and laughing like little angels. My brother was coming with a ball, but it was made of coconut, and was covered with some pieces of an old t-shirt to make it soft. When I realized that, first I laughed , but then I saw them playing and enjoying their time, and getting mud over their bodies by jumping over the pond of muddy water.

The rain was getting stronger all the time. My little brother came, and he invited me to play with his team in the rain. They were missing one player in his team, so they were losing at that moment. At first I said no, because I had to go and do some homework and I didn’t wanted to be dirty and wet. My brother looked at me, and said to me something very interesting, as if he was a mature person. What he told me was, “ Don’t be a boring man, you have to enjoy this time because there are no more days like this one. Just come to play and have this opportunity to be with my friends, and enjoy this beautiful rain.” After listening to him, I felt something inside me, which made me change my mind, so I decided to go.

Everyone was covered with mud like little pigs. I saw my brother covered with mud all over his face, all I saw of him face was his white teeth and eyes, and the rest of his body was just black. It was so funny to me. The rest of the kids were also having a great time. It looked like war of mud, however, more than a football game. This was because most of the kids were pushing against the other team and making them fall like ducks over the pond of mud. It was very slippery on the field and always before to kick our famous ball as a result we slipped and fell like potatoes sacks. In one time, I was trying to score a goal, but beside the goal was a big pond of mud. I kicked the ball and I missed it and I fell, and I got my whole body full of the stinky mud especially on my face. I was very angry and embarrassed by that. All the kids were laughing at me and some of my neighbors too. I thought for a moment in my mind, “why do I have to be angry if this is just mud, if I go to the river it will wash away with water”. So I started to laugh too. For me it was my best day I ever had. I forgot everything at that time; no homework, no worries, I was just enjoying that few minutes like a kid.

Finally we finished our famous football game. Everyone was going to the river, but I made my brother stay for a moment and I told him, “Your life is one of the wonderful things you have and I appreciate the invitation to join you. Also I appreciate you for giving me this time and making me understand something very important: that our life has many good and bad times, but the good ones stay forever.”

Since I played this football game I started to have a different view about why it is important to spend time with our friends, family, neighbors and even people who we don’t know.

So what I did then is I would call all the kids in my community and invite them to play a football game. Sometimes I would invite my family and the neighbors to play a community football game with us. It creates a real family environment while having fun during the game and forgetting for that moment the worries of every day.

I believe that spending time with our family, friends, and neighbors makes our lives more important, but also enjoy that time and feeling of community. For me it is very important to spend more time with them, because some day they are going to leave from our world and it is always better to share time today and not wait for tomorrow, because tomorrow might be too late.