Life is moving very fast... maybe too fast. It seems it was yesterday when we took Banana to college and she received her graduation ring last weekend. I tried my best to keep my face straight but everything went down the drain when I saw her radiant smile. I felt very proud and just like that on a flash all the things that we went thru flooded my mind. I saw her as the strong hard working young lady that she is. The time stopped for a minute and the people that was surrounding us were curious and were staring at us and wondering what the deal was. Banana was crying too. I was able to hear a couple of "awww's" but I was more concerned about how ridiculous I look with the tears running down my face. They didn't know and they will never know what we had to endure to get to this point. The same day Alex turned 22, it was a double celebration. She seems to be sober, still working and going to school full time. She is paying for her bills and she makes sense now. She is being responsible, I'm extremely happy and proud of her.
We believe that she gets it now. Last month she sent me a text about an assignment that she had to do. She had to have $10 dollars to invest and make revenue with them. She decided to buy balloons and a pump to make figures and sell them, by the time she texted me, she had made $25 dollars and thanked me for teaching her those life skills, she was proud of how fast she multiplied her investment. I was surprised that she could even remember how to do them. She learned that from when I was recently divorced (she was still in elementary school) and I was trying my best to keep them busy and were attending church a couple of days a week as well as getting involved as volunteers in all kind of activities. One night during the Christmas holidays I offered to dress up like a clown and make balloons for disadvantaged kids, that same night we also took presents and food to them. Alex wanted to do it with me and she did. After that night, a lot more requests came in, even for birthday parties; a few months later Banana joined us. I think that the most important lesson was for them to realized that helping others is a wonderful thing and that there are a lot of people out there who also just like us, were struggling and going thru a hard times. I did the best with what we had back then and I remember those days with love and nostalgia.
