By Samantha P, staff writer
I was 8 when I went to visit Él Salvador for the first time. My memory was mostly of spending time with my grandma, we would go to amusement parks, water parks, and even the Zoo. We’d hang out with my aunts and uncles, and they would take us out to eat and take us to get to know new places. My Grandma would show me off to the whole village and I loved all the hugs and kisses I would receive. I never complained about being with her, I loved being around her, my “Abuelita”.
This past winter break I came back to visit El Salvador again. But when I came back, now older, I focused less on hanging out with my Grandma, and I preferred hanging out with my cousins. Every day we would go to the Village parties, we would dance all night and I would always come back home at 3 am. Sometimes I would come home the next day since I would stay over at a cousin’s house. We did things that any regular teen enjoyed, mainly just fooling around. but they would take me out to the beaches, the capital city, and even would take me out just to hang out at a local park. We would have long conversations about everything, school, private things even relationships at my grandma’s house. We would watch movies and order Pupusas (traditional Salvadoran food) from my Uncle Carlo’s restaurant. They made me feel happy.
But whenever I was with my Grandma, we would mostly do things she would like to do, go to church, go to my aunt’s house (which I didn’t mind but I would just be on my phone), or do nothing besides laying on the sofa, frustrate. It made me feel bad when I would wish that I was with my cousins instead of my Grandma because it’s not like I didn’t like spending time with her, but it was because I was always bored whenever we would go out together.
Most of the time my Grandma wouldn’t want me to hang out with my cousins. I would get lucky if my Grandma let me go out with my cousins, and it would take a million phone calls from my mom to my Grandma to let me go. Sometimes, my Mom couldn’t even convince her, which would always lead my Grandma and me to argue, until finally, she would just let me go.
Now that I’ve been back home for the last month, I’ve realized that I was being too harsh on my Grandma. She probably wanted me to spend more time with her and enjoy the things she liked because she just wanted some quality time with me, but I was being selfish and I wanted to have fun.
I regret not spending time with her more, maybe if I had just communicated with her more about how I felt and instead of making petty arguments with her, things might have gone differently and we could’ve gone to places where we could have both enjoyed. My Grandma is coming up here for my graduation so hopefully, I can spend the time I lost with her down there and recover it back here.
