-A simple action-

It is incredible how the simplest and most beautiful action can change the course of your life, change even a minute or second of it, and I think that is one of the many magic of living.

It was hot, a normal and boring day to go to school, with the exception that that day was my father's birthday, I love that time of the year, he is that father who will always support you with anything you want to accomplish, such as If you want to go to Japan, without hesitation he will help you no matter if it is far away or that you cannot take care of yourself, he is the type who would do the impossible to see his family happy, I admire him for being a man with a cool head when he must be one and a happy man when it is the occasion, he loves history, he is a walking library and thanks to him, it is possible for me to pass my history class, he is someone exemplary as a person, and I am happy to have a Dad like him.

I proceeded to get on the bus that would take me to school, excited with my hand in my right pocket holding the money for his gift, since I would buy it to him when my mother picks me up to go shopping with her, I arrived at school and from class to class it comes the moment of the day that I was not expecting at all, I thought it would be fluid and that clearly nothing could go wrong, and obviously when you say that is the typical cliché that something bad would happen, and it did, when I entered my writing and reading class, I realize that that day they handed in the IA scores, which was the quarterly exam, and in those years my English was not good at all, since it is my second language.

I began to feel a horrible pain in my stomach, one of those that they give you when it is your first day of school, and you are the new one at school, and since I am a very nervous person, my palms were sweaty and my head was only tormented with negative thoughts like, what would I say to my dad when he sees my scores? And just that day was his birthday and this would completely ruin the surprise, I had prepared for him since it was my first time buying a gift for him with my money, work, and effort. My legs were shaking and my heart stopped for a second when the writing teacher called me outside the classroom to tell me my grade, her face was not happy, she was impassive and somewhat disappointed since this teacher helped me a lot in the past months to improve my performance in her class, she was somewhat distant and indifferent person, but not rude at all, you could see that she liked her job regardless of the fact that she used to be expressionless with her students, she had told me that I had gotten a 1 in my essay and in the reading section only a 37, it broke my heart to hear this, because apart from having to deliver these results to my dad, I felt unintelligent and incapable of achieving better than that, and without being able to contain myself with a lump in my throat, tears began to flow from my eyes until I burst into tears in front of the teacher, I felt ashamed by this fact, but I couldn't contain myself, and that's when the teacher asked me why I was crying, I explained to her with a broken voice that today was my father's birthday and that I felt useless in her class for the result of this exam, and surprisingly the teacher told me to look at her, so I did, but when I saw her, I saw a nice and sweet face, I was surprised by this since she did not use to be like that, and unfortunately I wasn't able to find out why she behaved like that at that time, she told me that I had to give her the signature of my parents tomorrow, but that she could make an exception just for this time, and that the grade could be improved with more dedication, so she told me that tomorrow she would give me the paper so that I would deliver it the next day without fail.

I went to wipe my tears in the bathroom, and then I went to class with some shame for what had just happened, after the last classes my mom picked me up on the way out, we went to buy a gift for my dad, and by the way, as a thank you, I bought a box of chocolates for the teacher to take the next day. I got home, and we had an incredible time because my Dad drowned completely in the cake, because of my brother, I was a bit worried because the next day my dad would probably scold me for such scores, then the next day I gave the teacher the chocolates and I still remember her face like if it were yesterday, she was very grateful with a big smile on her face, but still reminding me with little laughs that it was the last time she gave me the advantage of delivering things late and for the other time there will be no excuses, it seems as if I had made her day because later in class the teacher did not have the same face, and she seemed happier and more pleasant, unfortunately the next day she did not come and that is how it happened for two weeks we all thought she had gotten sick or something, nothing out of the ordinary since she always brought pills with her, and we thought they were for the stress that we caused her every day.

Until the school announced that we would give a minute of silence to the teacher who passed away and that they would not say why, for privacy reasons, I remember that when they said her name, I couldn't believe it, it was completely unreal that from one day to the next a person could disappear out of nowhere, and I saw how my classmates were surprised by the fact that that teacher passed away. I felt dejected by the feeling that her sudden disappearance in class caused me, I began to cry for the simple fact that I could not have spoken to her before and that the last memory I have of her are her words “this is the last time I allow you to deliver things late” and to think that it really was, it was strange to me how a teacher and at the same time a complete stranger could have made me feel so gray and regretful.

That life is so short and unexpected that people and their behavior are unpredictable, as their life, you will never know what will happen in a minute, that’s why the essence that you leave of yourself to other people matters a lot since it is like a personal perfume, that people will remember, since with a simple action full of kindness you can change the day or the minute of a person and I think that is the wonderful thing about being alive and witnessing these extraordinary and unfortunately unusual acts since thanks to this from that moment I have learned to embrace with acts of kindness those people who surround me even if they are not part of my life.