Nestor's e-mail

Yes, I am already in Ras Al-Khaimah after spending a couple of days (less actually) in Bahrain. I have spent here still little time though so I will let you know how things are going later. As I did one year ago with an e-mail I sent to Luca, I post this time an e-mail that I have received from my friend Nestor, with his permission. It is long but juicy I think.

After a previous entry on which I said that 2009 was rubbish, quite a few people have told me off. They are right. Things not happening as I expected doesn't mean that it has been rubbish. What will I say when it actually is? These messages have opened my eyes and the following one is one of the most interesting e-mails I have received in my life. Because I had friends that I don't deserve who make me feel like the luckiest person in the world, I post here Nestor's e-mail, who I am sure he speaks on behalf of all of them:


I have been reading your blog, your latest entry (thanks for the "excellent friend", I take the hint, I'm that cocky). I see you do an analysis for 2009 with a certain balance between the "good" and the "bad", in quotation marks because it all depends a lot on how you look at it... but I find strange that the outcome sums up in the conclusion with which you started your speech: "it has been rubbish"... If it helps, I have had many seasons when I have thought the same about my year, my life, etc. But when someone from the outside sets out some points for which you shouldn't feel like this, the perspective changes a lot. You realise that sometimes someone else's opinion is much more objective than yours when talking about yourself. We are so poisoned with our own miseries that they get to cloud our sight. You could be in the most wonderful place on the planet, along with your most beloved people, hugging a bottle of your favourite drink, and still think "what a shitty life, there is no wifi here..." So for these reasons and many more, here goes a series of facts that should change the dark glass through which you look at yourself:

-Quite a few years ago, when your father died, you decided that you would left the university, you'd look for a job in a factory and manage to go ahead. I remember myself insisting and telling you that you didn't have to do it, you were brave, you bet on what you wanted and you owe a large part of what you are today to that decision. If it hadn't happened like that, picture your life: surrounded by workmates with the football as a source of lucidity, hooked 8h/day to a production line machine, flattening your encephalogram thanks to the noisy hammering of a place like PEMCO (note by Rafa: that's the place where his father and mine worked).

-You went ahead on your path, participated very actively in one of the most important projects in your city, the cathedral, you made friends for ever and a networking that will always be there and can bring you opportunities for the future.

-You decided to put an end to that time, you wanted to widen your horizons, you bet again and didn't stop until you got what you were seeking, very reflective and balanced as always. You always had clear the pros and cons of all the decisions you were making, didn't get too enthusiastic with your next step, but you stepped ahead firmly. You improved your English, got experience in another area of your field of knowledge. As always, sometimes better, sometimes worse, you knew again how to get surrounded by people that contributed with the company you needed and who totally respected your huuuuuuge moments of privacy

-The book goes on, you turned the page, and with a bedroll and without a shaking hand, you left to change the scene ready to go with the flow and see what was coming up. Around those days it seems that your thoughts were around your sexuality (I do not yet have clear how many "turns" has that had, you know that I have always been quite nosy, hahaha) and decided to come out of a closet in which I don't think you have ever been. You opened to a new world ready to ENJOY TWICE AS MUCH, you bastard

-Now you are in the Persian Gulf, running up and down, seeing a culture that not many westerners have the chance to see, earning some cash that will act as a mattress for your next step, which won't be better nor bad than the rest, just different

-You have Friends, the kind you can write with the capital F because you know that they will try to help you as much as they can, that they respect you and appreciate the way you are, that are always keen to have you around... and not just that, your Friends are spread all around the world, we do very different things, each of us have very different backgrounds, but we all have something in common: we love you a lot, you are our uncle Matt, the traveller uncle of Gobbo from the Fraggle... We are always looking forward to receiving your news about where you are, what strange thing you are doing, who you are meeting, etc, etc...

Oh well, I know you are as stubborn as a mule, but I am more stubborn, and if "it has been rubbish" is your last description of 2009 you're screwed up because that gives you more reasons to be optimistic, because that increases a lot the chances to have a better 2010.