Alessia is an only child, she graduated in Finance, and also obtained a Master's Degree in Business Administration, little by little she gained relevance in the company until she reached the position of Contracting Coordinator.
She has her schedule always tight, and rarely visits her parents because she works very hard, but today she received a call that would change her rhythm of life.
While in a meeting, she saw that he received a call from her mother's house, and she rejected it because she could not answer it at that moment, when she left this meeting she forgot to call her, and when she arrived at noon her mother insisted again, this made her sense that something was not right, and attended to her.
Her face changed as she listened to her mom, she didn't finish her lunch, she got up from the table and hurriedly left. Her companions were taken aback.
Alessia got to the hospital as fast as she could, but the ride seemed like an eternity.
_How is he? She asked Mrs. Sophie, and through tears she could only reply, _They're trying to stabilize him.
Alessia and Mrs. Sophie hug each other, just trying to pray. Then, the doctor on call leaves the Intensive Care area and gives them the terrible news:
_Mr. Benjamin is very delicate, although he is stable, the forecasts are not encouraging, they will be allowed to see him only for a few minutes.
As soon as they entered the room, they saw him as if he was asleep, but he went into cardiac arrest and did not recover.
That day, Alessia lost her father.
Despite her great pain, Alessia had not shed a single tear, she told herself that she had to be strong, now her mother only had her.
She took care of all the arrangements for her father's last goodbye, she looked at him in the urn, and she was still incredulous, the strong man with whom she grew up was gone.
Alessia didn't cry either when she saw how the earth was burying the urn, she could only contemplate the scene in silence while hugging her mother.
She barely took 3 days off and went back to work, everyone looked at her perplexed, she did not express her sadness, but her eyes gave her away. It was Friday, and when she left work, she decided to go to sleep at her mother's house.
On Saturday morning, her mom made her a special breakfast, it was her 30th birthday, and it was the first time she would spend it without her father.
She received a big hug from Mrs. Sophie and a box containing a beautiful watch, but there was also another gift on the table, that her dad had bought for her. Alessia took it incredulously, and opened it curiously, there was a photo of the two of them, from when she was a child.
The photo rested on an agenda, and had a note: My daughter, a few days ago I got this beautiful photo, I have been reviewing the achievements of my life, and I concluded that my greatest achievement is you. Today is your birthday, you are already 30, can you believe it? And I want to give you this agenda so that you fill it with life, not with occupations, not with commitments, I want you to write down the moments that make you happy, those that make you smile, those that make you sigh, life is much more than work, please take this advice into account.
She hadn't finished reading the note when she started to cry, she couldn't stop her tears, her mother hugged her tenderly and when she calmed down, she decided to give herself permission to live her mourning.
On Monday morning, she came into the office with a different attitude, she quit her job without further explanation, her boss left the resignation on the desk and told her to take a few days off, to take three weeks off her vacation, to meditate on it and if after those weeks she still maintained her decision, then he accepted her resignation.
But Alessia felt inside her that there was no turning back, that job for which she felt great satisfaction no longer made any sense to her, she needed to rediscover herself, she needed her life to make sense, the words that her father had written in the Note echoed in her mind as if she had heard them from his own lips.
She convinced Mrs. Sophie to go on a trip, she wanted to live totally new experiences for them, so they went to South Africa, they made an expedition to enjoy the African fauna.
Alessia was amazed by the experience, waking up before dawn to prepare for the surprising encounter with nature, breathing the purity of the air in that virgin territory, seeing the birds fly like a movie, so much variety, so much majesty.
She was intimidated by the gaze of a buffalo that was staring at her.
She enjoyed watching a herd of elephants takes a bath, they seemed to play.
She shuddered to see how a lion knocked down its prey up close, it was so exciting, she even froze at the moment a lion walked by the vehicle while it was parked, she had never felt so scared and at the same time, she had never felt so alive, and despite so much fear she enjoyed seeing that beautiful short golden fur.
_Her presence is impressive, no doubt.
Alessia whispered to her mother when the lion had already moved away from the vehicle.
And it was right there that she decided, she wanted to unite her hobby with this passion for wildlife, she wanted to take photos of the majesty that the South African fauna gave her, she wanted to start a totally different and amazing life, with an open mind to receive surprises that life in that wild territory could give him, this trip awakened her adventurous and exploratory nature.
She would now chase the perfect shots of the exciting and wild moments, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, caught up in the purr of nature, and in this new stage of life she managed to be happy.
