I'd like to share something here with you. Do you know when people come to you with an invitation for something that they clearly know you don't like? Take for example: if you absolutely hate basketball and that friend comes with two tickets in the front row for NBA? And you fell afraid to say a categorical "NO" just because he's your best friend?
So... I have this best friend who ran into me a 1,000 years ago (or it seems like), who knows forever how much I hate soccer. It so happens that he got two invitations for a party. But not just any party: the Viewing Party for UEFA Champions League 2018 Rio de Janeiro! The match was to be Real Madrid x Liverpool.
I accepted. And immediately regreted it.
I even asked him if I could bring some reading material so I wouldn't be bored. Of course, he, polite as ever, just told me "I am inviting you so that you can have fun with me". In return I demanded him to not answer any work messages or emails that might pop up on his cellphone.
The invitations:
Terms agreed, in one beautiful warm afternoon we got to the Jockey Club. We were received with caipirinhas and finger foods. The big screen showed some moments from both teams campaigns. I started enjoying the beers and the potato chips, but as a very famous actor entered the mini stage to host the game I even got to pay some attention. Who is he?
A man who performed in a YouTube video as a man asking his wife for dessert... (But that's a story for another post!), Luís Lobianco:
Yes, I had to make a stories about it! Yes, I was enjoying the event! Yes, I watched the whole game routing for Liverpool (because of The Beetles)!
We had a great time and afterwards, we even received an email from the organization asking for our opinion, which came with a nice video (that for some reason I can't upload here! A little help someone?)
Anyway, on the very next week, I had promised my students a conversation class, which I had totally forgotten! As I was about to panic because I hadn't prepared anything for it, some of the boys started taking about the results on Champions! I completely turned the conversation class to soccer and made them - who are ever so shy to talk in class -, comment everything, taught some soccer vocabulary, some slangs and kept the attention.
I always like to say that no knowledge is useless. And the more I say it the more I feel it true.
If I had never gone to that Viewing Party, I would never be able to discuss such matters with my students. I would never succeed in my keeping their focus and attention. I never knew that I could use such a thing as a class, as something I so much love as teaching!
This has opened a new horizon for me as a teacher and as a person: you never know when a piece of information will come in handy. You never know which opportunities lie ahead or who was on that party invitation you refused!
So, I guess, the greatest key information in this post is: GO! Go and try! There's always a lesson to be learned!!!