A groovy lifestyle Last weekend in a family lunch an interesting conversation came out: ‘The standard of living of our youth’. I said that my oldest son, who is in 6th grade of primary school and is turning 12 next month, is the only one in his classroom who doesn’t have a mobile phone. We talked about how things have changed in just one generation. Nowadays, a teen needs a great amount of money to spend the month. As I said, most of them have a mobile phone. There also exists a tendency among teenagers to rent a room on the ground floor so that they can meet together. For example, my nephew, who is in 2nd grade in Secondary school and is 14, and a group of around 40 friends have rented a shop unit and each of them has to pay around 20 € a month. We must add to this the brand-name clothes they use and the expensive hair styles. Some of them also either they go out to have sandwiches or they buy them and take them to the former places I talked about. I truly believe that parents nowadays are working in order to afford their kids’ groovy lifestyle. I am almost sure that some parents struggle to make ends meet, but they don’t want their children have less than the others. What society have we created? So many people are dying of hunger in the World and we are focused on feeding the appearance and material necessities of ourserves.

What is something you have learned lately? Last week I had a really hard time in an eskupilota match with my son. I accompanied my son to the match, as usual. This was a hand- in-hand pelota match and they started playing. My son started failing and the scoreboard was rising in favor of the other one. Suddenly, my 11-year-old son started crying and he couldn’t stop, he got completely stacked and wasn’t able to do anything properly. He shouted: ‘I can’t, I can’t!!’. To be honest, I didn’t know how to help him or what to tell him, but I realized that what he really feared was not to mark. I asked him about it and he confirmed my thoughts. Although I tried to convinced him of doing his best and not noticing the scoreboard, it was in vain. He continued with the same behavior until the end of the match and he marked once because his rival failed on purpose. It took me a while to console him, since he continued crying inconsolably even after the match. He felt angry, despaired, embarrassed and he wished he could go back. I told him that we can learn a lot with a failure and it had already happened what he most feared and he survived, so now on he won’t be afraid of it any more. I told him what I really believe, that the earlier you experience failure the better, providing that you have someone who supports around. Not only has this experience been a lesson to my son but it has also been a learning to me. This match has been a turning point for me. Before, I used to get really nervous in my children’s matches but after that match I realized what our due in the matches is: whether they win or they lose is not up to us, in no way, so the only thing we can do is support them emotionally and to be always there. Since then, I don’t look at the score board and don’t get as nervous as I used to.

Gangs As far as gangs are concerned there exists a huge problem in some countries, one of them is Colombia. According to some studies, despite being it one of the richest countries in the World, more than a 60 % of its population lives in extreme poverty. As a result, gangs and drug issues are spreading more and more all over the country, especially in the capital city, Bogotá. Nevertheless, there exists some hope among the new generations. I read an article about an initiative that was created by a guy some years ago. He had taken children from the poverty and taught each of them a musical instrument and set up an orchestra with them. This has been an opportunity for many children to get out from such polluted atmosphere that is predominating in the chanty towns of Colombia. Those children who had never had a goal to reach and had never believed in themselves, to practice these musical skills make them reach a great level of self-confidence and well-being. Although, this initiative has been criticized by other countries arguing that the children are being exploited by their trainers, I truly believe that this kind of movements can really help a country grow, providing that they are supervised by some other organization. Governments should promote as well as support financially any similar movement as much in Colombia as in any other country.

success and failure When I start thinking about failure I can’t stand but thinking about my own experience last year. I had been attending English lessons all the school year and finally I passed the written exam in June but I failed the oral one. After knowing the results I was really disappointed and quite depressed for three days. I had another opportunity in September. However, the next day I met a friend of mine and we started talking about languages, we told each other about our experiences and then on I couldn’t take what he told me out of my mind. He explained to me that he used to practice Italian with an online teacher. So I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to practice my speaking and improve my fluency. At the beginning it was tremendously challenging to me, since computing and technology isn’t my cup of coffee, I really felt all at sea, but soon I became an expert on these issues. I also had to handle different currency, since the lessons must be paid in dollars. I felt like a bull in a China shop at the beginning but approximately by the third lesson I was completely self-confident. Not only did I improve my spoken English using this tool, but I also met incredibly interesting people, such as an American guy, who lives in Thailand and in his youth he worked as a spy for the American government in Russia, so he could speak Russian, English and some Thai. Therefore, what at first seemed to be a failure, nowadays I feel it like a success, because thanks to it I discovered an awesome tool to me, since being a shy person I feel really self-conscious in front of a classroom, but I can show the best of myself in a one-by-one conversation. Afterwards, I continued with language exchanges, meeting even more interesting people and spreading my mother tongue, Basque language, all over the World. If I had passed the exam, this wouldn’t have happened: every cloud has a silver lining. In the end, I didn’t pass the oral exam in September because I got stacked and I couldn’t even make a sentence properly, thanks to the nerves. Nevertheless, I feel successful because I know that I reached a high level of spoken English, no matter if I am not able to demonstrate it in front of a jury. The day will arrive when I will be capable of doing so. I am sure!