Our 18 year old daughter fell in love here in Mexico. We all learned a lot from the experience, but Tara is constantly changing because of his relationship with Gustavo. At first we had our doubts. Tara first saw Gustavo when she went to Black House, a local store sells band t-shirts and body jewelry. She went to get my nose pierced, and despite the fact that she bled a little more than she expected, she was totally captivated by borer.
Now, most parents of girls 18-year-old did not take it too seriously when they hear that someone is "so cute" and "So Nice". We are totally rejected his initial interest. But Tara has started going to Black House virtually every day to "check out t-shirts" and it turned out she had a crush on piercing.
Within weeks, no-nonsense German friend Tara, Lisa, but faint bored and decided to take matters into their own hands. A trip to the Black House, Gustavo asked what he was doing that night, and then pulls Tara Jungle Juice, and proceeded to knock heads together. It was the beginning of a truly beautiful and unique one of Tara would never have even talked two years ago. It turns out that Gustavo is 22 years of high school drop very poor family.
But it is not at all what one might think based on this description. This is a guy who reads the works of Shakespeare, Kant and Nietzsche, and even if he is not at all religious, read the Bible three times, in order, as he says, "knows what it is." He writes poems. Holds notebooks full of drawings and ideas. Remember the lyrics - in English - even if you do not speak the language at all.
He looks up every word he does not know whether he will be able to understand what the songs are meant to convey. Tara previous crushes tend to be very white bread suburban American children playing soccer, going to church with their parents, and planned to study sports medicine in college. Tara has always been a straight boy and narrow with little tolerance for those who might be considered strange or lazy.
At age 16, spent a year in Brazil, which gave a much greater appreciation of cultural differences and a zest for nightlife and international friendship. However, came to Mazatlan she had to spend what would have been his last year (won in the beginning) to improve their Spanish without the possibility of meeting someone worth your time or interest. She did not expect to connect deeply with anyone, and certainly has no idea that love would pierce her heart.
Gustavo (it was named "Pierce" for obvious reasons) is a great thinker who is romantic, gentle and friendly. It has a warm and loyal group of friends who also self-taught and passionate ideas. It is very close to her sister and brother, and work very hard for a living and support his family while his father is still unemployed. Because Pierce, Tara was introduced to a world she never knew existed. It became part of a group of friends who love and support each other and live their ideals.
They have intimate encounters all night on the beach talking, laughing, drinking beer and watching the moon reflected on the ocean. Back in Oregon, Tara would have all-night intimate encounters girls in pajamas watching movies and chick laugh over pizza and ice cream. She believes that all black t-shirt crowd too anxious, and was so focused on her training, she would never consider dating someone who had left school in ninth grade.
A month from now, our family will move to Argentina and Tara will be on its way to Europe, where he reconnected with the Belgian and Austrian friends who met in Brazil and will spend a semester University of Marburg in Germany. From there you head to college in Canada, where it may come as a junior. Tara was born in Japan, traveled to India and Nepal, lived in Brazil and Mexico and is likely to explore a dozen countries. Pierce has never left Mexico - and probably never. Tara speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish and is learning German. Pierce only speaks Spanish. Tara is with her friends in the world every day via email and instant messaging. Pierce has no computer - or computer.
Tara has learned about the privilege and gender. He saw that he was born lucky, basically winning the lottery in the world because of his U.S. passport and U.S. middle-class family. She knows that school is not the only way to learn, that money does not make you smarter or nicer, and that income has nothing to do with the quality of their relationships and depth of his soul.
I looked into the heart of Tara exponential growth in recent months. I watched him grow from a teenager to a cynical bid, thoughtful adults. As a mother, I am deeply grateful to Gustavo had in our lives this year. It stretched our minds, our broad perspective, and pierced themselves with our hearts. Is sure to have excessive bleeding we said goodbye.
