Beth - Short Fiction

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I needed to choose one point to begin talking about my life. I think it is good starting when my father’s parents came from Syria. Firstly, they decided to live in the countryside of Campinas where they lived for approximately 20 years. After that time, my grandfather caught a lung disease which caused him a large amount of suffering until his death.
Soon, my grandmother and her 11 children had to get another different way of life. They considered living in a big city could bring more opportunities and they moved as soon as possible. The place they had chosen was property of my mother’s parents where everything happened. My parents, João and Izabel, suddenly met and fell madly in love and married three years later.
In 1956, their first-born was born, me. My parents chose my first name based on an epic film acted by Elizabeth Taylor. Even before I was born, they had already decided the first daughter would receive this name.
I am the oldest child of my family and since the tender age of childhood I had to take care of my younger sisters, this responsibility making me feel a stronger child. On the other hand, my first day at school showed that I needed a lot of care because after my mother let me in a classroom I was crying a lot and my fragility and sadness were obvious for everyone else.
I was not considered an excellent student , not a bad one either, but in general I was always successful in exams or courses. I studied High School at Fundação Bradesco, which provided a technical school Business Administration. This Course was very important to help me to choose my profession later. At that time, I got my first job. I was working during the day and studying at night. As soon as I went to University I had got a new job in an American bank which provided an interesting kind of work and a good monthly salary for four years. Afterwards, I worked in other companies that offered good promotion prospects. At the same time, I made a lot of friends in those jobs and one of them was the most important friend who later became my husband, Francisco.
One year later, after my marriage, my daughter was born and this enjoyable event gave us pleasure. Isabela is her name. She was the first grandchild besides being very nice and beautiful girl with her adorable blue eyes, she transformed the family’s life. Isabela grew up and her success with everyone delighted us.
I would like to say that I dealt with motherhood and my professional career at the same time and that caused me no great difficulty and worry. It was possible or easier for me because I had my parents who helped us every time we needed.
Nowadays, I am feeling calm and satisfied with my life and when I look back, I can see that many objectives were achieved. However, I was willing to do a lot of things such as studying, learning, working and so on. Therefore, I am really looking forward to starting a new job which I have passed in open competition.
I can imagine when one is reading my writing, he/she will think : Isn’t there any sad or unpleasant fact to relate in this life story? The answer is: I am living a very satisfactory and pleasant life , so I can say that at this moment I can’t bring anything bad to my mind.