Be Egotistical Along With Your Career

It was a random night in 1995 and there I was, tired, eating a snack on the street in front of the school while I waited for the bell for the last two classes to ring. The thought flew around, or maybe I wasn't even thinking anymore: the tiredness was great. I was yanked out of that limbo by someone who came in from behind and smacked me on the shoulder. "Hey Ana!", and I almost fell backwards. It was Luciano and his annoying habit of scaring friends (I always fell for his jokes and I still do today). I asked what he was doing there and found that he was also on break, but from work. At that time, Luciano was a machine operator for a company nearby. We were both teenagers from humble beginnings, fighting for some opportunity. For a moment, I felt a little sorry for us. Me splitting between a full-time job and that data-processing tech course; him being a worker, still so young, reconciling hard work with his studies, and also saving part of his salary to pay the English he did on Saturdays. Now, looking back, I see how precious those experiences were. In Luciano's case, those choices were even better, as his father had just gone bankrupt. His intellectual and professional future had been at his own risk. The good side? He had quite an incentive to be the protagonist of his own life, at the age of 17. He could be carried away by circumstances or let others decide for him. But he chose to take control. We say goodbye with a smile and a sigh typical of those who have to face the second round of the journey.