Teen Perspective: “The Day I Learned the Value of All I Have”

I will never forget the day I learned the value of all I have.

I was living in El Salvador, a small country of Central America and, having just moved from America at age twelve, was struggling with culture shock and identifying with my countrymen.

This particular Sunday my aunt Dinora—affectionately nicknamed “Tillita”—had come over to visit. I was in the kitchen at the time, making myself a sandwich, and had, in the typical American way, cut off the bread crusts to throw away.

Tillita walked into the kitchen and greeted me, asking me questions about how I was doing and if I was excited to start school. I answered her questions and asked about my older cousins, who were in college. While we spoke, I made my way over to the trashcan and threw away the bread crusts without a second thought.

I looked up from the trashcan and was shocked by the look on my aunt’s face. She stood, frozen in horror, staring at me in utter disbelief. We locked eyes for a second before she came back to life, crying, “What are you doing? Why did you throw them away?”

Then, to my amazement, she reached into the trashcan, pulled out the crusts and ate them.

(for the rest of the story, head on over to The Whatever Girls where Kelly, one of my students, is guest blogging today!)