Believing That You Can Believing That You Can
learn English and get my GED. That is why I am in Gary
adult High school. Later, I divorced Albert and started
working in a restaurant where I met Simon, an African
American man. I used to travel with him a lot. He has been
to many different places and I enjoy being with him. He is a
very caring and lovable man. I am planning to marry him
soon and hope I will be happy forever.
Iris Washington is a student at Gary Adult High School who recently
moved to ABE class from ESOL. Her teacher is Renuka Karunaratne.
Nothing is Accidental
I want to share with you my conviction that nothing is
accidental, and everything happens for a reason. I’m just a
regular person who had dreamed about visiting the U.S.
since I was a little girl. It seemed to be, if not impossible, at
least something extremely hard for me to realize. I lived my
life in my poor country in Eastern Europe. I tried to make
my parents proud of me, and I hope I did that, at least
sometimes. After I’d finished my studies, I moved to the
capital and started a new life. I thought it was for good. I
worked for a few companies and had different positions,
including marketing manager for an advertising agency.
Having a degree in marketing, making good money and
having a nice job, I was sure that I had found my vocation.
One day, the economic crisis came to my country, and
this was the beginning of the collapse for many companies,
and for the one for which I was working. The company was
closed and there I was, at a moment in my life when I had to
start again, to try something new. Then I accepted a job that
a big real estate company offered me. Everybody said that it
wasn’t the right time to start this kind of job; everybody
asked me, “Why? Why now when the market is so
unsecure, why not years ago when you could have made a
lot of money in real estate?” The answer was simple: “Now
is my time!” I worked very hard.
I used to work twelve hours a day without feeling tired
and became one of the best brokers in my company. I was
happy and knew that this was the job that I would love most
in my life. Last year in my country, I met two men on two