Agito !

Meet the three agitos, the symbol of the Paralympics.
Agito is Latin for "I move" or "Spirit in Motion"

As we say goodbye to the biggest Paralympic Games in history, we are left with smiles, cheer, tears and the power of the human being of overcoming anything and everything life throws our way.

The will to turn something tragical into something magical and to set an example to the world, that you can do everything you set your mind to and that impossible is just a word.

The Olympic games itself already showed us how far we can actually go when there’s an inner will, but for me, personally, there was something even more special about the Paralympics. Each and every athlete had a life story, some were born with disabilities, others faced our worst nightmares situations and they all rose above it.

They all have an extra inch of strengh to go all the miles they need, to climb every mountain and break any cliche – prejudice – thinking that is around. I got the chance to meet athletes from all over the world volunteering at the Vancouver Olympic Village and this has enlarged my mind in many ways.

I am proud to have been part of this dream and to have cheered for everyone, with no discrimination. I believe during this two weeks of games the whole population opened their eyes to the inclusive, to the different, to the acceptance of it all, it was amazing to be there for the cheering and the crowded stadiums and to be one with everyone, cheering for one nation without judging the disabilities but instead being amazed of what them can do with it.

Congratulations to all the Paralympic Athletes to have the courage of raising above all the ashes and shine on our lives, you all inspired me to more.

Un Année!!

thankful.

to be back where I belong.

thank You for every day.

thank You for every breath,

every rain drop,

ray of sunshine,

and for the many years to come

ahead of me.

Go Blue Team!

If you watched the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this February or were in town for the fun, you’ve probably come across the blue team workforce! With more than 2.500 volunteers all across the city and mountains, they were all over, rain or shine, to do their best to help the Olympics be a success. Some of them were Vancouverites, some from across Canada and some from all over the world that came to the city to give a helping hand and be part of this experience of a lifetime!

Personally, I love to volunteer! To help out, meet new people, have fun, do and learn different things, you get so much out of it you don’t even realize. I find that, when you love the city you’re living in, that’s when you want to do more and be part of whatever it is that is happening…that’s why I, myself am from the blue jacket team!

To be a volunteer for the teams coming to Vancouver from all over the world, inside the Olympic Village, showing them the city and a bit of how life is up here is priceless! I wish that would be forever my day job, especially with that view of the False Creek staring back at me! Never been so proud to wear a jacket in my life!

Now, if you’re thinking “that’s so cool, wish I could do it”, we do still need hands!
http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Half of my Heart

All this come and go in life has made me realize that I was lucky enough to find the place I belong the second time I stepped out of an airplane, the real first time on my own. To walk down the streets and discover everytime at your own pace and find out how much you belong. This feeling will always remain in my heart, and wherever I go I will bring I with me. I also figured out that harder than leave for good, is to come back to where you left from, I can’t yet put my finger on it to realize what it is that torned my heart as my plane took off.

This is far to be the last post of this subject, but it will be for a while, as we all know life is made of choices, and every single choice you make since you wake up can transform your day and sometimes your life. My choice brought me to the only place in the world where I can breathe in and out knowing it’s for real, it brought me hope and dreams I could never have dreamed anywhere else, it was chosen for me, it was waiting for me all along, and that thread kept me hanging to what is now HOME.

The balance between two worlds is what I have been struggling to achive lately, the missing out part is what I can’t really let go, the missing out on the people that I left on the other side, Brazil will always be home too, where I was born, raised and became what I am. It’s hard to let go of a world that has who you love in, you’re somehow always attach to it, even tough you know where you want to be and stay, part of your heart is always beating on the other side.

Until these two worlds collide, I will keep leaving pieces of my heart along the way and letting the time settle the “getting’used to”on my days, you’d think it’s about time for me to know how to deal with those feelings, but no, I don’t. They just hit me differently everytime I guess. Almost a year that I am back in here, so much happened I can’t even fit in only this frame of time, the important thing is I’m half way there…
and I know He has a plan!