Love and Friendship

Colombia recently celebrated Love and Friendship Day (Día del Amor y la Amistad), which is basically the Colombian equivalent to Valentine's Day. Last week at school, the students had an activity-filled day where the focus was on strengthening relationships and communicating love rather than reading and writing. Admittedly, I was not excited about this holiday nor its celebration when I first heard about it. My American perspective made me think of another sappy Valentine's Day where couples are obnoxiously unconcerned about PDA while exchanging expensive gifts, and you are further reminded of how single you truly are.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. The activities the students put on at school focused more on the plutonic love and friendship rather than romanticism. I saw my students spending quality time with each other and having (what's this?) a face to face conversation rather than just swiping and liking on their phones. The emphasis for them seemed to be giving each other appreciation and affection by spending uninterrupted quality time together and exchanging cards with handwritten messages.

It seems like a simple enough idea: once a year, let's tell the people we love that we love them. But something I've noticed in my students is that they do pretty well at communicating their feelings, even without a holiday or a school-planned activity. I constantly see students showing affection for each other in class, in the hallways, during breaks. They are not shy to hug or kiss on the cheek or provide verbal affirmation for one another. I'm not prepared to call this a cultural difference between them and Americans, but I do feel as if my students and even some friends in America would not be so quick to show such affection. For all of the times where they act like typical, angsty teenagers who slowly give you grey hairs, they have pure moments of respect and care for one another. And not to get on a soapbox (she says as she steps up and adjusts the microphone), but that's something I think we can all improve upon.

Personally, I spent my love and friendship day with new friends, a few bottles of wine, and some fantastic homemade hummus. We spent the night chatting, laughing, and sharing quality time with one another with very limited cellphone use. I've been in Colombia for two months now, but I do feel at home here, especially when I have nights like that.

So to conclude this long awaited post that several people kept nudging me to write, I'd like to be a sap for 12 seconds and share my love and appreciation for all of my friends and family. If I were home, you'd get a big ole Colombian cheek-kiss and affirmation that your presence in my life has made it more complete. (She steps off soapbox and retrieves paper bag from the seat pocket in front of her).