Feliz Dia De Los Papas!

Today, I will share a story with you about my father.

I was born in Venezuela to Colombian parents. I lived in Venezuela, Honduras and Canada all by the age of 7. Si! 7 años. Strangely, I never lived in Colombia. My maternal language is Spanish.

Our family moved to Canada in 1984 when I was 7…. now you know my age LOL!

My parents divorced when I was 9 years old. My sister and I stayed with our Mom. We didn’t speak much Spanish at home. I remember going to the Saturday Spanish school but that was it. The truth is that I lost a lot of my Spanish during my childhood and adolescent years. I took Spanish classes in University and actually found them hard.

My parents divorce was messy and we lost touch with my Dad for 29 years. I was an adult when I decided that it was time to reach out and reconnect with him. It was both an exhilarating and strange experience. However, my Dad and his side of the family have taught me so much about love.

My Dad lives in the Dominican Republic so we agreed to have weekly phone calls. Did you know that when I first started talking to him, I used a dictionary and google translate? (*now I know better to use Reverso – but I digress.) YES! I did. My Spanish was so rusty. This was January 2015. Ever since then, I have spoken in Spanish on a daily basis – and guess what? My Spanish has improved immensely.

With the support of my Dad; I started my private business in March of 2017. WOW! What an experience this has been. Lots of ups and downs with running a business – but one thing that never waivers is my LOVE of teaching Spanish.