Unlike what I usually do when sharing my articles, in this one I will start with a personal experience, to end with a brief reflection.

Three weeks into this new 2025, my family is beginning to experience stress more acutely, because important changes are approaching.

In this regard, in less than ninety days, we will go from living all together in a house, plus two pets, to living separated by more than 6,800 km of distance. One part will stay here in Buenos Aires-Argentina and the other will leave for Bogota-Colombia. And we will go to live in two apartments, which we are still looking for…

In the case of my older daughters, they will begin to live independently in Buenos Aires. The oldest is going to study the third year of medicine and the second is starting her career in the Faculty of Letters. They will be accompanied by the Labrador retriever that we inherited and assumed as our own, during this trip through Argentina.

In our case, we will begin a pilgrimage to this new destination for three to four years with our youngest daughter and the golden retriever Perucha who will soon be 4 years old, who is already an international pet (Peru, Argentina and soon Colombia).

For their part, Mariana and Fátima are doing their paperwork to obtain a driver’s license. On our side, my wife Jessica and I are beginning to experience little by little that feeling of the “empty nest” as we see that they begin to spread their wings and make their own decisions in life (Mariana even works part-time).

Meanwhile, the youngest is ready to face with enthusiasm this possibility of expanding her circle of friends. As she says: “I have friends in Peru, Argentina and now I will also have some in Colombia.” And she told me: “But dad, you say that childhood and school friends are forever.”

In the second paragraph of the brief shared story, I mentioned that all members of my family have begun to experience stress on the surface… I could even say that we are on the verge of a crisis, but seen from another perspective.

I remind you that the word Crisis in Chinese is associated with danger, risk and also with opportunity or a key moment. Etymologically, it comes from the Greek word Krino, which is associated with choosing, deciding.

In this sense, people, in all areas of their lives (whether at a personal, family, work level, etc.) will face CRISIS and as a result of this, we will make decisions, some will be to reaffirm what we are doing, others to change course or improve it.

And it is that our lives are made up of stages, where we inevitably enter into different types of crisis (with associated decisions, which may or may not be correct) and as a result of this we will unfold a mature or hard life.

• A mature life, which is becoming wise, not because it knows or accumulates knowledge, but because it savors and knows how to apply the experiences lived as a result of the good or bad decisions that it has made over time.
• A mature person, generally has powerful but simple words, a smile on his face and is always grateful for the different circumstances of his life.
• A hard life, on the other hand, not only ages us physically, but above all mentally.
• A hard person, generally is sour, has a frown mostly and when he reflects on the past, he only sees the negative side.

So, to develop a full life, we have to educate ourselves in self-knowledge, because the more conscious we are of who we are, the better we can exercise our will through the use of freedom. Otherwise, it will be the ego that makes use of our freedom.

In relation to the above, I share with you two phrases from Oscar Wilde, Irish writer of the 19th century.

• “Some cause happiness wherever they go, others when they leave.”
• “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”

For all that has been said, dear reader, I leave you with the following question, which I also ask myself: Which side do you want to be on, with the people who have a mature life or with the hard ones?

No, it is not worth getting tired!

Cheer up, keep rowing against the current!