Family
I say "I love you" to my loved ones everyday. Multiple times a day even. I don't take my time with them for granted. Maybe the experiences I had of moving to a new country at the age of nine and leaving all my family and friends behind in Brazil made me see the importance of family, friends, and of expressing myself.
At a young age, I had to quickly learn that life is hard. I experienced the loss of my grandfather (whom I was very close to) a few months after we moved to NYC, I had to learn English but because it was too difficult I instead learned Spanish first to communicate, I learned what loneliness and feeling misunderstood feels like even though at the time I was surrounded by other kids going through the same things like me - I missed my life in Brazil. And from that moment I saw the importance of letting my family and friends know that I loved them. And even though it was a difficult time in my very young life, guess what? I wouldn't change anything about it because it made me who I am today.
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Today I appreciate the many times I spent with my grandfather all those years ago (thanks to my parents), I am pretty much fluent in Spanish and from there my love for learning languages grew - today I am fluent in English, Portuguese and am learning Greek. Finally, even though feeling lonely and misunderstood is a feeling I don't wish upon anyone, I do believe it helped me see that we all need to go through tough times, low times to be able to appreciate the good ones. As sad as that may be.
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Why am I writing all this? All to say that it all goes back to family. Your foundation. Your safe haven. The only people that will be there for you no matter what.
We may have differences but they are the ones that goes through all the good times and bad times with you. No matter what.
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Yianni and I teach the importance of family and friends (who became family) to our children. We teach them to say I love you every time they see them or talk to them. Our time with our loved ones is sacred and we cherish it very much. It doesn't matter if we live far away from them (we have family in both Greece and Brazil) or five minutes away, when we FaceTime or visit we give them our full attention because we want them to know they mean everything to us, no matter what.
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