It’s midnight, I am turning around continuously in my blankets, but I can’t sleep. Therefore, I get out of my bed and I walk in the dark trying to find the door and being careful not to wake up my brother. I open the door slowly and I go to my grandfather’s bedroom on tiptoe. I feel very anxious: I feel my pyjamas too attached to my skin. I don’t want to wake up my grandfather, but he’s my hero, the only person that gives me the right answer. I enter in his bedroom and I try to wake him up gently – he snores, like always – caressing his face and calling him. Once, twice, three times and finally he wakes up.
<< What’s up? >>
<< Sorry grandpa, but I need your advice, I’m nervous… I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing… >>
<< Tell me >>
<< I’m not sure that the school I’ve chosen is the right school for me… I wouldn’t like to wastet my future… >>.
Tomorrow there will be the test to be accepted in my new school, it’s a difficult and important choice and I’m really confused… To attend this school means to make lots of sacrifices: to leave my friends, the people I love, to see my family just at the weekends and this makes me a little bit anxious and upset. Furthermore, this school is difficult and I’m also worried to fail the test. But on the other side I can’t wait to begin my new life. And it’s true, starting a new life is not simple, but I’ve always had this adventurous spirit, this constant desire to change, it’s part of my personality.
<< When I was young – my grandfather exclaims – I couldn’t continue my studies because there was the war and people had to worry about finding a way to survive. My mother was dead and I had to look after my family. We weren’t rich, we weren’t poor either, but the food was missing and we had to do something to survive… >>.
I let him talk and while he is talking, I have a knot in my stomach and I’m sorry about having told him my problems, because my difficulty is only a grain of sand compared to his past situation.
<<… So if I were you, I would attend this school, but I’m not you and I can’t decide for you… But I can only tell you that you don’t have to go to this school if you don’t want to >>.
<< Ok grandfather, thank you very much for your advice, good night! >>
<< Don’t mention it, good night my dear! >>
I get up from the bed and I close the door, then I go to the bathroom to think about our conversation.
Actually, I expected a clear answer from my grandfather, but he was right, it’s my life and so it’s my choice. I’m glad to have had this conversation, it made me understand many things, like to seize the moment and to do what you feel, what makes you happy, without regretting your choices.
I leave the frozen floor of the bathroom and I go to my bedroom, I slip under my covers and I close my eyes with a smile on my lips, happy to have found my way and even if I don’t know if I have made the right choice, if I could go back, I would take the same way.
Arianna Ceschina (4B) – Correspondent from Canada