Aspirations From Different Nations

            Barbi and I hung out again today! We met at the Bookstore after her class, and got to catch up about the weekend’s activities. Barbi had a long weekend since she took her final exams last Thursday, and said that it was nice not to have any homework for a few days. She was supposed to go to the TCU football game on Friday but had to go to her aunt’s funeral on Saturday. Barbi said she wasn’t particularly close to her aunt but that her family has gone through a rough patch the last few years. Loosing a family member, even if you’re not close to them, is difficult, however, Barbi views death as a common part of life. She continues to surprise me with her positivity, and I hope to develop a similar outlook about life and death as she has.

In class, she passed her writing and speaking exams, but is still struggling with grammar and reading. I offered to help her with her homework sometime but she insisted that she does it by herself so she will understand it better. The Intensive English program started the next section this week, and Barbi said it is even more difficult than what she has already learned. Barbi told me a few funny stories about her classmates, and said she is close with a lot of them. She enjoys speaking to people and getting to know them better, however, she said she has trouble understanding some of the students with heavy accents. Barbi told me that they often do in-class presentations, and although she enjoys talking, she gets nervous before public speaking. This was something that we agreed on, and bonded over the fact that we hate listening and watching ourselves back on video after presenting. Barbi said the last presentation she gave was about her favorite celebrity; her favorite is a rapper since she likes listening to rap music. Barbi’s favorite television show is “America’s Funniest Home Video’s” since she loves to laugh, and we talked about a few of our favorite videos we have ever seen.

Once talking for a while about our lives in general, and getting to know each other better about surface-level topics, we then switched to talk about the future and some goals that we have for our lives. Barbi asked me a lot about the business classes I am taking since she wants to have a career in business management. Ultimately, Barbi wants to start her own orphanage in Haiti in order to give the many orphans in Haiti a good home. She cares deeply about the wellbeing of others, and wants to use her education to help those less fortunate. Her business degree will allow her to have the knowledge required to start up this home, as she will understand how to finance the start-up and raise funds in order to continue to pay the bills. Barbi asked about what I want to do with my business degree, and I told her I want to do green marketing. I explained that I want to market for environmental sustainability, and she recognizes the need for this since in Haiti everyone just throws trash on the ground. It was fun getting to know Barbi on a deeper-level, and I got to learn about what motivates her.

Our relationship continues to develop with each meeting. We now text each other during the day, interact on social media, hug each other hello and goodbye, compliment each other on slight changes in wardrobe, hair style, etc., and look forward to hanging out again. Barbi was happy when I told her I will attend her class party on Friday, and she introduced me to her brother today. We are becoming consistent parts of each other’s life, and I enjoy hearing about her life. Barbi’s 22^nd birthday is next Tuesday, and I can’t wait to give her the birthday present I got for her! She is way more than just my conversation partner. Barbi is my friend, and I love having a friend like her.