Few months ago, I received an invitation to attend for the very first time an international seminar in the University of La Serena. At first, I didn't know what to say or what to do, mainly because I was totally nervous due to the nature of the invitation itself, but later I understood that chances like that , only happen once in a lifetime. Before making my last decision, I recall that my best friend told me "Jose! You have to go and do that! There is an urgent need to show others what you are doing within our community and to spread good ideas on many other educational realities across our region". Then I thought what she said was real and I left aside my fears and accepted to attend the Expanding Opportunities Seminar as a lecturer.

"Expanding Opportunities" is a seminar held year by year and organized by Fundación Oportunidad, with its headquarters in Santiago. Yali Hurtado, a lovely girl that works in the team, told me everything I needed to know and guided me so I could do the things right. I felt very naive at the beginning and totally nervous! TBH, I wish I could have had a book like those ending "...for dummies" as tons of ideas were on my mind, but there was no way to bring my ideas together. Thanks God I got a ray of light that showed me the path and it all came out naturally at the end.

The highly anticipated day came up, and many faces I knew... were there. Some outstanding colleagues, some very good friends, some formers classmates, teachers and some others, I actually didn't want to see (LOL!). You know, I was there with one single objective: to show other people I barely knew how I have managed to bring students together from all across the region in some highly recognized English language events. And there was no room for some bad blood :) (at least spoken)

Making the long story short, I was very happy to feel supported by people I knew and by people I barely did. All coming from different realities and places across the country. I made them play, laugh and of course inquire on their practices and to reflect on their fears. I got the feeling that many teachers do not try out new things just because those things are out of their confort zone, but once the wall gets overthrown, thousands of chances are right in front of you. So, I guess they enjoyed our time together, taking some ideas to reproduce afterwards in their homelands (or at least, that's what I expect.)

As soon as I finished, and I was on my very own, some tears came down my cheek, it was a sense of relief and accomplishment... I proved myself that I could do it and proved others that we can make some big changes as long as we are willing to. As I look back, I am not that sure if I would spend my whole life spreading lectures for large audiences, but maybe I would do it again in other circumstance or place. I do remember that some of my teachers at college always taught me to be brave enough to keep on challenging myself and I guess this first step was a nice jumping point to embrace other things to do,

Thanks everybody for coming and thanks for those who trusted on me. I felt for a couple of minutes a living example for others, I thank my partner, family and friends who pushed me to new boundaries and provided me with the energy and confidence boost I needed by then. Sometimes I wonder how would it be if I hadn't taken this opportunity, I guess I needed a new challenge.