Hi again to my readers and my future self,
Continuing the story of what has been of me the last 12 years I haven't been writing.
2018: I realized more things that happened that year that I forgot to mention!
- My little brother got into my same school! It's crazy because to this day he does not realize how smart he is. He didn't do as well as me in school but did way better than me in the PSU and got in loosely. He started carpooling with me that year (convenient) and added some of his music to my pendrive (this meand I didn't get my new car until later, my bad, it's been a while) and I remember I learned (forcefully) some Naruto openings those mornings riding to school. Rafi would go on to fail more courses than I did.
- I got apendicitis and noticed during band practice for the Viña Festival in Bet-El. I started not feeling so good, drove alone to my house from Los Trapenses (the hill) and sad in the bathroom in pain. I remember telling my mom "it hurts here" *points to appendix" and being like "I feel like I need to poop and physically cannot". My mom sat in the bathroom for a while, saw I couldn't fully stand up straight and was like "hospital". We went and they said it's crazy I wasn't in more pain. They gave me painkillers and we spent the night and I got a week off school. My friends from college came to visit me. That was cute.
- That week was the deadline to apply to Tutores, a super exclusive club of students that acted as mentors for first years. I recorded a motivational video with my apendicitis face on. I did not get in. My friends did and that sucked. Also a "friend" insinuated I didn't have appendicitis, and that it was a facade for actually getting an abortion. This dude got kind of black-listed mentally for me after that.
This winter I went to Israel (where it was summertime) with S, N and K for Taglit. It was very fun. Me and K stayed 2 extra weeks in Tel Aviv and this could be catalogged as wild time number 3. It was so fun to stay at a hostel, go bar crawling, meet people from around the world and visit beautiful places like the Kineret and Carmel.
The "Estallido Social" happened in October. It's hard to explain this. I remember I was having lunch and bumped into one of my mentees. She asked me like how do I feel about the news. I said I didn't know much about it. She said her dad is having a hard time because they keep raising the subway ticket prices and he has to use it for work every day. That was october 17th.
The next day we went to school but were told to leave early. At home watching the news, our everyday subway station (in front of the school in San Joaquín) had been burnt down. Classes were canceled the next day. More subway stations burnt down. No classes the next day, and the next. Watching the news was terrifying, especially because there didn't seem to be a good solution. The military had tanks out on the streets over the next weeks. Literally tanks rolling by my house like it's normal. School came back after 2 weeks virtually. We had online classes. That prepared us for what happend the year after.
2020: The pandemic hit. I remember I was skeptic at first. My mom was travelling, had a layover in the UK and said she was told to buy a KN95 mask. We had just started seeing news of the virus in Europe, but it seemed so far away. My mom didn't catch it then, but little by little we started hearing about it in Chile. School was canceled after 2 or 3 weeks of it. Back to virtual classes. Little did we know it would be for 2 years.
I remember right before this happened we started the school year with my friends, we were sitting at the place we always had lunch and made funny videos for our joke CAi (engineering student council) OE Cai joking about Corona. I had gone to J's to record some music just the week before the lockdowns.
I spent about a month locked in the house because I refused to wear a mask. After a while there was no getting out of it. I got a bike that year and rode (with a permit). We started having family lunches on the couch watching a show. We got through
- The Office
- Man in the High Castle
- Jack Ryan
Maybe more that I don't remember.
That first semester of 2020 I was still a TA for Desafíos. It was weird doing it online. I also had gotten into choir class as an elective. That went well.
2021: Still going strong on that pandemic. I cannot beleive how long we were locked up! Seems crazy looking back. 2021-1 was the first semester some classes were OK to be hybrid I think. If not it was the second.
It was going to be a year since the pandemic started so this dude C from the year below us asked J if he wanted to help making a We Are the World video with students from all classes of our engineering school. J asked me to help out. I did.
That first semester I was crowned head TA in Desafíos. The song dude, C, was one of the TAs I would have in charge. He was hippy-dippy, long hair, very chill. Also extremely smart. Top of his class. He made the classes fun. We talked about music in the breakout rooms when the kids were working on their projects. Outside the Desafíos class, we became friends since we realized we had a bunch of classes in common. He helped me out a lot.
Fast forward to end of semester, we recorded a music video together (also finally met in person) and things sort of clicked. It's funny thinking back how this happened even though we had curfew at 10 PM and no in person activities. We had each other in all social media and he did this thing where he was a different character in each of them, and each of the characters talked to me sepparately and talked shit about each other. We talked untill late hours and I wasn't getting bored. J gave me his blessing (I still wasn't sure). We started getting together more often and spoiler alert, haven't stopped ever since.
We went to Pichilemu with G and her boyfriend D that october and he asked me to be his girlfriend. That semester he also helped me out in my classes.
2022: This would be our last year in school. C was super smart so he graduated the first semester, I did the second. This year I went to Israel to play volleyball in the Maccabiah representing Chile. That was a really cool experience. I specially remember this date because I was taking a really hard class I was terrible at that semester and I had to leave for Israel before the grades were up. I failed the class with a 7 hour timezone difference. C and G made it their mission for me to pass, and miraculously they did it. Thank god.
At the end of this year I started my Trabajo de Título, basically I started working in a company to get my degree. I lasted 8 months untill
2023: When I actually graduated. This job was awful. The people were great and the job was OK but my boss and my bosses boss had a secret relationship and were super unethical. I quit that job once I had my degree secured because they tried to get me mixed up in some suspicious shit. Today they have had a baby together and he no longer works there. She is in extended maternity leave. G worked there since January of 2023 and didn't leave untill 2025.
2024: C and I moved in together in August that year. Before this we each went to a resort vacation with our families. It was bittersweet, since it was kind of a goodbye trip. I was really sad the first months I moved out; I really missed my parents.
It was a small appartment in Warren Smith. The appartment was always warm and in the best location EVER. All birthdays were nearby, bakery and pharmacies in the corner. Work was walking distance. Near my parents' and his. I sold my Hyundai (I loved that car) and started sharing his (1 car is enough for 2).
A month after moving in C and I travelled to Europe. [[]]]
Once we got back, I went to Mexico for work for 3 weeks!! This was so much fun. I had so many Tacos and Mezcalitas and got to know Ciudad de Mexico, Teotihuacán and Coyoacán during día de muertos! Amazing experience.
We still did my birthday at my parents'. That was nice. We had an appartment shower (a few) and have (still) a whiteboard where our friends get points each time they visit us.
In october of this year my dad quit his corporate job. In november he got a job in Barcelona to be a CEO in a tech startup. In december my mom got her breast cancer diagnosis.
2025: This was not a great year. We started January in the OR. I slept there with my mom for her single mastectomy. She started chemo in february I think, and started losing her hair a few weeks in. This sucked. She was so sad. I wasn't living there and my dad was in Barcelona, so my brother covered for the most part. Also I was working, he was not. I'm very thankful he could be there. She finished chemo in June and started radio. After that she started rebuilding life.
In parallell at work I was promoted twice, I was doing great. This was a good place to focus energy while my mom was in treatment. C was a really good partner to have in all of this.
In October I travelled with my grandma to Barcelona to visit my dad. It was a great trip. I was there for 3 weeks and had the chance to spend some time alone, think and walk. I worked remotely some days. Travelled with him on the weekends, to the Pirinees and Costa Brava and the South of France. He came to Chile in december. My mom got her last surgery at the end of that year and now has been focusing on getting better.
Me, C and my brother R spent new years in Rio de Janeiro.
2026: {year in progress}
Once we got back I got really sick to my stomach, it was awful.
This year is going great so far. Dad moved back to Chile. Carrer wise going great: I did 2 talks (one for Friends of Figma in my office and one for Continuum, a tech consulting firm) that in my opinion went really well. I feel like storytelling is something I do well and should do more of. Am motivated to keep pushing myself in that direction for the rest of the year and see what happens.
More news soon!
D
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