2017

2017 was a very different year for me. I like to think I'm accustomed to change (definitely write that in my resume) because of all the moves and changes I grew up with, but in reality all those changes were very minimal compared to this year.

10 years ago we moved from Brazil to Spain. Entirely different cultures, language, people... but all the same my role as a teenager didn't change much. I still went to classes, did pretty well without trying much, still played basketball and loved it, eventually made close friends and had countless sleepovers with them.

8 years ago now (wow) I moved to UD. This was tough, but still very much the same teenage-like life. Just worry about school and basketball until I eventually quit basketball.

Even starting to work didn't feel very different. I had somewhere to be 7am-5pm and people to see after that. Predictable, reliable, mostly out of my responsibility. Same principle of life applied:  do as I am told and do it well. Then enjoy life.


After January 18th of last year, however, my whole life shifted in ENTIRELY. No longer could I rely on the same things I was used to relying on. I couldn't rely on someone to tell me how to do everything, a professor or boss to tell me when I was headed the wrong way, or proper sleep to help me think straight, or on ANY sort of schedule to feel like I had some control on life. Baby Mateo changed my entire view and experience of life.

I began to love like never before. I eventually gave up 3 of my most favorite things in the world for this tiny creature that just takes and takes and takes, and makes life grand.

1.  First I gave up sleep. I've always been an 8 hour person. I much rather sleep than party or go out. I love sleeping early. That went out the window before he was even born. 
2. Then I gave up teaching. After working my entire academic life towards being a teacher, and absolutely loving my job, I gave it up for him. I still miss it every day, and it hurts, but I won't go back until I know Mateo's fine without my constant presence. 
3. A few months later I had to give up Cheese (luckily only for about 5 months). I never knew I could love someone so much that would make it easy to all of a sudden cut out 70% of my diet. 

I lost schedules, I lost my good mood for a while... This change shook my world like I could have never expected. I had to try to re-find ME, and I'm still doing so now... but something I found was something I'd left behind I don't know how many years ago: reading for pleasure. 

The newfound TIME for ANYTHING was (is) terrifying, but books help to deal with it. 

 I realized I needed something for ME, something I could do with no previous notice, something to do as I took a bubble bath or while Mateo napped on me, or as I nursed him... and I realized that (besides netflix and facebook and instagram, and phone games that just suck my life away) books were the answer. I didn't want to start out too strong and give up so I started to read fun wishywashy books, and start to create reading habits. I ended the year reading quite a few books -next entry- and now I want to try to read even more during 2018. So here is blog attempt #16 (ha!) an attempt to document the books I read this year and my thoughts on them.