Births, cycling and completed studies… chronicle of a year that says goodbye
Courtesy of the interviewee: Close circles, be grateful for the good things that happened to us, bury the bad experiences, hope for a better and different year, spend some time with your loved ones… All this – and more – can and should happen in the last days of December. It is true that in these times setbacks and worries are around the corner and that it is sometimes difficult to think positively, but there will always be reasons to celebrate, with the little that is in the house and with the sincere warmth of the family.
A happiness does not erase a sadness; Although they are antonyms and philosophical opposites, life can connect joys and difficult moments in one thread, so that sometimes paths branch and in pain there is peace (which could well translate into contentment). ), z to have done everything possible.
However, if I have to choose, I choose the happy stories, the chronicles of the successful, the history of the impossible, because, as the poet would say, one knows too much about the possible.
In search of stories of hope and achieved goals, I came across the stories of Zaily, Randol and María Eugenia, three people from Avila who have faced life in 2023 and who expect new successes in the next year.
With the right pedal
“As easy as riding a bike.” We have all heard this sentence before and to a certain extent we agree with it. Pedaling and maintaining balance is a simple, repetitive activity that lacks complexity after learning to ride on two wheels. But cyclists know that their sport requires sacrifice and a resistance to pain and fatigue that the average person does not possess.
“Look at how easy cycling is, that you can train for several months and after three days of inactivity you will have lost all the physical gains you have made. The most difficult thing is the endurance that you have to put into this sport,” explains Randol Izquierdo, 19 years old, son of the city of Portals and young promise of Cuban cycling.
The boy is a graduate of the Marina Samuel Noble Sports Initiation School and has been passionate about cycling since he was eight years old. He studies at the Giraldo Córdova Cardín High Performance Athletes Training School in the capital. His day begins at 6:00 a.m. when he grabs his bike and rides long distances, looking to the future, which today certainly looks hopeful.
Despite his last name, Randol Izquierdo appears to have started 2023 well. At least that's what can be deduced from the results he's achieved over the last 12 months. This is his second year in the U-23 national team, which gave him victory at the La Farola 2023 Cycling Prize, third place at the Vuelta Ciclística a Oriente, several relevant results in the road and mountain bike modalities during the Alba Games . He is also looking forward to participating in the Central American and Caribbean Games, which will take place in San Salvador in June and July.
For this reason, and perhaps because Ciego de Ávila urgently needs to save its status as the capital of Cuban cycling, the provincial authorities recently voted Randol rookie of the year among all the region's young athletes. This is how the year ends in the life of a young athlete who hopes to start 2024 on the right foot again.
“Study? You're crazy?”
Neilan
“Many people asked me if I was crazy, how I would study at this point in my life, whether learning was for boys and young people… But I didn't listen to them and at 47 I started my studies. “ says Maria. Eugenia Rodríguez, teacher at the Nardelio Álvarez rural school in the municipality of Mamonal, municipality of Majagua.
“After almost 20 years out of the sector, I returned to teaching and returned to first grade, which is a very important moment for children because it is where they learn to read and write and develop important skills for the future. . There are people who say it’s a complex degree, but I really enjoy it.”
When María returned to the classroom, she had to dust off the knowledge she had acquired during the school years in which she taught, as well as the lessons she received from her teachers at the Rafael Morales Pedagogical School in Morón.
Added to the challenge of being a teacher after such a long absence was a second one: having children with learning disabilities in the classroom who needed differentiated practice and more special education attention.
And then came the third challenge: starting over the bachelor's degree in elementary education, the same one that had remained unfinished two decades earlier when she stopped being a teacher. Here he had to think carefully… Returning to school meant that every Saturday he had to travel the 14 kilometers between his house and the city university center with the “bottle”. It meant homework, practical work and final tests; Conquer countless topics and achieve all this at an age when you have thousands of other worries on your mind.
If he had listened to the pessimistic opinions that came along, he would probably have concluded that the time for learning had already passed at that point in his life. One Saturday, however, she found herself back in the role of a student in the encounter class when most of her classmates were her son's age. For four years, María was a teacher from Monday to Friday and a student on Saturday mornings.
One would have to wonder how many people would give up if they were him. Or how many would not even think about going back to study right now, considering how difficult life is and how many inconveniences arise every day. Only she knows the sacrifice it cost her, but she assures that it was worth it.
A few days ago, the 51-year-old teacher received her degree at the graduation ceremony of the Máximo Gómez Báez University in Ciego de Ávila. The photos are out there, on their social networks. There are some there. In one of them he smiles with the title in his hand, together with René González from The Five. People congratulate her, thank her and think about the future. There will be new projects and goals for next year. He says he will start a master's degree as soon as he can.
The stork didn't arrive
Dr. Marvely Isaac/Facebook
She and her partner had been trying for a while but couldn't do it. They longed for the euphoria of parenthood and looked forward to the smile of a baby as the greatest thing in the world. However, the pregnancy still did not take place and during her absence worries about the unborn child began to dominate the house.
But young Zaily Gómez and her husband Eliecer Cervantes didn't give up. In the absence of the stork, which apparently got lost on the trip or went to the wrong house, they went to the assisted reproduction program of Ciego de Ávila and there, after using some techniques to increase the couple's fertility, impregnated the couple forever . Happiness. First came the nausea, then the confirmation of the pregnancy, and finally the news that there was not one, but three future offspring in the new mother's womb.
To the risk of pregnancy that the triplets entailed, it had to be added that Zaily is a rather small person, in addition to all the other complications that can arise with pregnancy. Therefore, she had to be admitted very soon to the Doctor Antonio Luaces Iraola Provincial General Teaching Hospital so that a multidisciplinary team could closely monitor her health and that of the fetuses.
Doctors say that Zaily was very disciplined, that she followed all the specialists' instructions and that, thanks to this absence of nonsense, she had a healthy and uneventful pregnancy until the end.
On October 24th, at 34 weeks pregnant, their babies were born. First came Liam, the biggest of them all, then Alisen and finally little Isabella. The medical team led by obstetrician-gynecologist Darvel Hernández Calzadilla successfully performed the cesarean section and brought three lives into the world… giving a world to the lives of Zaily and Eliecer.
The babies, who had to stay in the hospital until they reached an appropriate weight – two and a half kilograms, as recommended in medical manuals – were discharged this Wednesday to the joy of their parents and the entire family, who hope to celebrate the end of the year year with three new members.
This is the happy story of Zaily and Eliecer, but it could also have been that of many other couples from Avila who, thanks to assisted reproduction consultations, in 2023 realized the dream that a wayward stork could not fulfill for them.
We toast them all and use their happiness to drive away any bad omens!