First job: Dream creator

Before talking about my first job, I must tell you that my parents believed that when someone starts working and earning money, it is likely that if they are studying, they would stop studying; therefore, as long as we were studying and living in the family home, we were forbidden to work and could only study.

But that changed while I was in college. I was in the fifth semester of my degree when a friend’s mother called me and told me that they needed my help. Apparently, a friend of hers had a 7-year-old daughter who had problems with reading and writing, and unfortunately she didn’t have the time or the tools to teach her. So, they asked me if I could go every day, for one hour, to her house and help her with her homework. Obviously, they would pay me weekly. When I heard the amount, I don’t remember the exact number, without thinking too much I said yes.

When I returned home and informed my parents that I would be working, they screamed to the heavens showing their disagreement, but I promised them that I would continue studying as always and that my academic performance would not be affected. With this promise and reluctantly, my parents agreed.

From that moment on, I became not only Greylla Fayad Blandín’s teacher but also her play friend, her older sister, and even her mother. Although Greylla had attention problems, she was a very intelligent girl, with an overflowing imagination and very funny. I would arrive at 4 in the afternoon, and when it was time for me to leave, neither she wanted me to go, nor did I want to leave.

At that time, I used to help her with her homework and then we would engage in other activities, like drawing, reading, writing stories. My role was that of a guide, an advisor, but I even became her playmate. So much so that all her school friends, even her teacher, knew about me. Her mother, when she got home from work, barely asked me about Greylla's behavior or progress and usually sent her to bed. What I could see was that she was a lonely, very busy woman, with money, trying to raise her daughter in the best way.

I remember that many times we made puppets, and through those paper dolls, Greylla told me that she didn’t know her dad because he lived far away, that she had never been to the beach, and even once she told me that her little friends made fun of her because she was fat and couldn’t run fast. Through those puppets, I gave her advice and we even made a cape to become invisible:

_Nancy, yesterday I put on the cloak to make myself invisible when the kids started teasing me, she once told me on a play afternoon.

I gave Greylla lessons for a year, during which my relationship with her grew so much that she was like a little sister to me. Later, mother and daughter had to move to Italy and from there, many times, she sent me gifts and letters. The year before last, I learned from a friend that Greylla is already married and has children. Ah, and she also told me she asked about me: 'She gave me a cloak to make myself invisible,' Greylla said with a smile.

All images are free, from Pixabay, and the text was translated with Deepl

Thank you for reading and commenting. Until a future reading, friends