A little bit of history... Part 11

Here is chapter 11 on my personal history. It has been a while since I completed chapter 10, so if you want to check previous chapters, click here 

After I completed the fifth grade, on summer time, I went with mom to the Military Hospital, and it looks like she got something serious... for the first weeks she was every day getting treatment, she never told me what she got, and every session was about one and a half hour, so she also arranged for me to have an appointment with the dentist, and I believe I had a lot of cavities because I got the doctor working on my mouth for several weeks... I never got engaged with kids my age, but I always was able to talk with the adults, and being every day at that hospital area it was a great opportunity for me to talk with the doctor and nurses... after few days, I started helping the doctor putting the instrumental on the sterilizer, cleaning the floor and I also helped preparing the folder for the next appointments to the nurse... I loved to be there and I shared with the doctor my interest on Neurology, and she told me that some day I will apply for the Military Medical School... I discover on that time how great was to help others... I don't remember much of what I did while I was at home on that summer, but definitively I remember the hour and a half I had on the dentist station. After few weeks, my mother's appointments were twice a week, until summer ended.

Also that summer something interesting happened, My dad's car had some failures, so he took the car to the shop around the corner and while he was there, I asked if I can be some kind of help there, and the mechanic allowed me to start helping... so I started cleaning parts and the shop and slowly I start learning about car mechanics... Wow... I got my first job as a helper there. God gave me a great learning skills and I learned fast from the basics: tune up and breaks and that shop was a great school for me. Helping and working was fun for me.

When summed ended I got a new school "Lic. Eduardo Novoa Elementary School"... my fifth one... in that school I meet a very special woman, my beloved teacher Chela, the woman who viewed something different on me besides a trouble kid... she asked me what I liked to do, and I told her about my passion for singing and my guitar and how I learned to do choir on the previous school, I also shared how I really liked to have fun with cables and other electrical stuff. She challenged me: "Do you want to organize a chorus? All right, you can do it as well as you keep good behavior in the class room and you can bring your guitar to prepare a performance for the school". Those were like magic words for me, she believed on me, and gave me an opportunity. That made a huge difference in my life, I went to the classroom working hard, focus on the work, and because I always finished fast my assignments, I was able to plan the choir work, and during recess I started working with some other kids I invited to audition to participate on the Chorus... after few weeks of reahearse, we were able to sang two songs.. "Cantares"; It was a song from Antonio Machado's poetry with music by Joan Manuel Serrat and "Hymn to Joy" from Beethoven. It was the first time that my mother was called to the school to hear something different than listen a complain for my behavior... suddenly I was no more mr. ArTrouble De la Mora. Every time I got doubts or wanted some one to talk, I just jumped on my bike and visited my teacher’s house… (It was about 15 miles from my home)

I remember those days as busy days, on the morning, school, and after school, homework and going to the mechanical shop... studing, working, learning, singing, playing guitar and growing, but also I remember those days as some of my happiest days.

I don't remember how, but I learned also to do electrical stuff, wiring, connecting sound equipments and microphones. That skill was also helpful in the school, so I helped the principal to have all sound equipments working, so for the first time in five years I was able to enter the principal's office without shame...

Most of the people see the weakness, defects, mistakes and negative on others... but there is some special people who can see beyond that... My teacher Chela was one of those. She was my first real leadership encounter. Four previous teachers gave up on me, thanks to her, I completed my sixth grade and I got graduated from elementary with honors at a great party organized by the school. The best lesson she taught me was to believe always in me, also to believe in others, to believe that everything you learn you can share with others. We had just few performances, but the learning from that season, lasted all my life.

Now, the summer after that and middle school, but that is another chapter.