Senior Hoodie

 Oh my goodness! Today I experienced one of the most touching things I have gone through on this exchange. 

As some of you might know, I had to change schools during the Chilean summer and it was pretty hard on me. I had an amazing group of friends in my old school who I love a lot and was devastated to have to leave behind. I was afraid of having to be the new girl again (which is a million times harder in Spanish, trust me) and I had doubts about my abilities to connect with my new classmates as well as I did with my old ones. I have only been going to my new school for a little over a month now, but I am glad to announce that in that amount of time I have met some pretty awesome people, experienced some pretty hilarious days, and have found a million reasons to be happy at Colegio Quimahue. Don't get me wrong; all that I have stated above is really nice, but what happened today changed everything for me and I just have to share it with all of you. 

This morning I walked into class and everything felt completely normal. The teacher got to class and began teaching a lesson. In the middle of the lesson, my friend Rocio walked up and whispered something to the teacher, who stepped away to give Rocio the classes attention. I was waiting for her to begin announcing something about school or a project, but instead she looked at me with a big smile and told me to come join her in front of the class. I was completely caught off guard and got super nervous, which apparently showed on my face because everyone around me started laughing and telling me not to worry and that I want in trouble. When I got to the front of the class, Rocio turned to me and began saying the sweetest things. She told me she spoke for the whole class when she said that she was delighted about how in such short time I have become such an important attribute to Cuarto Medio B, and that everyone appreciated having me around. She then told me that since I am one of them now, they wanted to show me how much that means to them, and at that moment my friend Manuel came up to me with a wrapped gift. The class started cheering for me to open it, and when I did, my heart practically melted to the floor. I pulled out the blue class hoodie embroidered with everyone's names on it and put it on immediatly! Everyone cheered and I loved the gift so much but the emotion left me at loss for Spanish vocabulary so I put my hands on my heart and just said "muchas gracias" a lot. This gift made me feel like a true member of my classroom, and the idea that they thought of me as one of them made me want to cry a little bit. :,)

The hoodies in Cuarto Medio are a Chilean tradition in most schools. Each class has it's own hoodie with everyone's names on it with little doodles that someone in the class usually draws. My class had made their hoodies over the summer before anyone knew me, before I even had an idea I would be changing schools. Before today, everyday all of my class except for me would wear their adorable matching hoodies and I would stand out a bit. I had always wanted one of the hoodies, but at first I felt silly asking about them because I didn't want to pry myself into the class or anything, and after a while I just sort of accepted that I wouldn't own one. Little did I know, all my classmates had gotten together my first week of school and decided to get me one in secret. They had all chipped in to raise the money for it, and then set up this elaborate plan of how to keep it a secret between them, the lady who makes the hoodies, and the head teacher of our class. They had a bunch of plans for if I came close to finding out, and even made a chat group for talking about it on Facebook! 

It might seem like I am a bit overexcited about such a little thing that happened, but for me this meant a lot. It meant that my dear classmates cared about making me feel cared about before they even really knew me. It meant that I was a part of the class before I had any idea they wanted me there, and most importantly the words Rocio used told me that they believed they had made the right decision and that they care about me even more now. Tomorrow I will go to school in my hoodie, and other than my height, skin tone, freckles, blonde hair, and blue eyes, I will look exactly like everyone else in my class! 

Today was an amazing day and I am absolutely in love with my class. If any of you are practicing your English by reading this, thank you so much for making me feel this way. I love all of you.