Yes, I was born 4 times.

It is said that the place where you are born is where you make your first memories, well in my case, and although it is strange, I have been born 4 times. I have probably not reached maturity in my life, I mean I'm still young, well, at least that is what my heart feels.

You may wonder, how was he born 4 times? Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but let me explain:

Since I was little I have lived in 4 cities in 3 different countries. In each of these places I have memories, experiences, and moments that marked me forever because from these I felt that I was born again, each stage made me a different person, a person who built memories and transformed with the influence of each place, but especially from the people who shared all those experiences with me.

To put it in context, I call myself Colombo - Ecua - Italian, it is the nationality that I had to invent to define a little that sense of belonging to each of the places where I was born, and so with this self-definition, I will tell you how my first birth was.

Roots in the concrete jungle

I was born in Bogotá, a gigantic city, that's how I saw it at that time, since I remember a TV program that I watched as a child that defined it as: the concrete jungle.

Also, my memories take me to specific places; my house, school, the neighborhood park, and the grocery store where I kept the list my mother gave me to buy the food for lunch every day. These memories lead me to what I consider the most important; the people, my mom, and what she called hour 0 (the moment when you face difficult situations that lead you to make changes). The teacher Teresa, with the first steps of salsa and the reading of a book that unknowingly testified to my future life. My family and what Christmas meant (no gifts but always together). The dance teacher who taught me some Colombian folklore, and finally, the physical education classes, where I realized that I was good at running, but not at playing soccer.

Then, and without warning, the second pregnancy of my next birth began, where a truck transformed into the uterus that took me for 24 hours, a journey on the way to a new life.

And I tell you, what a change!

Happiness closer to the stars

My second birth was in Tulcán - Ecuador, the highest city I have ever been to. As I write, thousands of memories come to me, you know? It was the only time that I entered a cemetery and was amazed by its beauty. Where I discovered that people who spoke my same language have different accents and I understood the meaning of words like "guagua", which means child, and "ñaño", which means brother. Where to eat a guinea pig or Cuy as they call it, is more than a meal, it is something cultural. Where I studied in a College named after a Catholic Saint, years later, by chance of destiny, I would live in the city that bears his name. Finally, I discovered, in a house where art speaks, that writing is a form of expression that transmits emotions and that can be appreciated by people. There I began to understand what it is to be different and what is the meaning of being a foreigner.

I want to ask you, have you ever felt that you should do something, even if you don't want to? I know that feeling, you know?

Sometimes, even if we are happy, fate or rather circumstances tell us that being born twice is not enough and asks us, even though we do not want it, to be born again, almost as a mandatory mandate.

The gestation modality is repeated, only with a difference; 9 hours in the womb is the time for my new birth.

Mandatory Responsibilities in Tsáchilas lands

The third birth was in the city of Los Colorados, as they call it, Santo Domingo-Ecuador, privileged as it is close to the sea and the Andes, the place where even if it rains it is hot. There is a plant that produces a red ink and is used as a symbol in the hair of a native community. Where water is bought and stored in large tanks, and the banana is essential in all meals.

Where I learned to love and be loved, and I understood that feeling is beautiful, but sometimes it hurts. I lived with the word SHOULD, which I promised to eliminate from my vocabulary and my life. I learned that you have to grow up fast and assume responsibilities for the good of the family, I knew what the feeling that frustration produces, I learned the value and importance of being honest with myself and I understood that I can decide to be born again, and do it to LIVE MY LIFE at 1000%.

Imagine that you can decide where and when to be born, would you like to?

Well, I lived it, and it was incredible, it was the first time that I fully assumed a decision this important and that it would change everything. This time the gestation had changed, it was a uterus with wings and for 12 hours it took me to the place that, although far away, was where I wanted to be.

Call to life

Thus, the city of Santo, Padova - Italy, became the place where for the first time it was my choice to be born and this was the fourth birth, but the most special.

Padova, where its streets smell like coffee, and a meadow becomes a viewpoint of beauty and history. I learned to have breakfast with sweet things, besides that the meaning of an apéritif is to share with the people you love, that a square can be a market, the place where you see your friends, where art and music coexist. I understood that I could learn other languages ​​and get to know cultures from different countries, that dancing like in Latin America is something exotic, that Spanish is a beautiful language that many other people like even if they cannot speak it, that food is essential, and its cultural meaning is an identity, that their university is older than the sum of all the years of the cities where they had lived. It is such a special house that it has Venice as its luxury patio, where you meet people who become your family.

It is the place where I can be madly happy and in some moments, sad, where each year that passes is different, that the word racism is a bonfire that fortunately is surrounded by stones, where dogs walk but do not live in the streets, where I met people who had everything but were not happy. When I walk in its streets people do not smile, the word "ciao" is to say hello and say goodbye, and the most important thing is that it is the place where I feel happy, free, and full of stimuli, where the call to life is to learn to live.

Ready?

I hope you see that I am no longer as crazy as you might have thought when you started reading, because it is possible to be born 4 times. I believe that you, or perhaps people you know, can be born as many times as necessary, because the memories we build, the places we are in, and the people we meet, are linked to each birth we make.

Now, are you ready to be born again?