How to keep going in the face of tragedy – True stories from Venezuela

Shit happens. Everyone knows that. Life has ups and downs. We must all endure scars and stitches, right? Yes, that’s what I tell myself everyday hoping I can face reality with hope and a smile on my face but, how do you tell this to a mother who is about to give birth to twins, but is forced to give them away because she cannot afford to feed them? I know what you must be thinking, she’s just a terrible mother, how can someone give up their kids? Yeah, that’s what I thought too at first, but then she said: "There’s no way I’m giving them away separately, I want them to grow up together". Now, there’s something only a loving mother would say, isn’t it? That’s when it hit me, she literally COULD NOT feed them, hell, she barely could feed herself…

I’m an entrepreneur and I follow motivation accounts on IG, I think positively, I pray and have faith, but every once in while I find myself asking myself, can I really just look away? when I see crazy shit like this going on every day, on every corner, in my beloved country. Most people seem to be taking one of three options:

1. Running like rats, nah, let’s call it: Leaving all the drama behind by starting fresh in another country. That’s what a bunch of people are doing, including my brother in-law, two of my closest friends and one of my wealthiest uncles.
2. Talking (complaining) about it. Which is what 90% of the people do 24/7.
3. Yup, looking the other way. Which seems to be what the rich people are doing, the ones drinking at the bars and buying them Toyotas. Also, blind chavistas who still deny what’s happening and government officials go for this option.

As for option No. 1, I’m often tempted to think about it… Now, option No. 2… I can’t, I don’t, I won’t. This sickens me, I guess when there’s a war all people do is talk about the war, right? I personally hate this, but no matter where I go I can’t seem to escape it. Small talk has become: Things are rough, huh? While I’m just thinking what’s the point of talking about it? All this can do for me is bring me down, which makes me less productive and can only bring me closer to the group that is starving, standing in line for 6 hours for two pounds of flour… just plain fading, throwing their lives away. So yes, option No. 3 has become my reality (although I’m not buying Toyotas). When some notification hits me I quit drifting. This has been my option and although it makes me feel somewhat ashamed, it’s also my survival kit.

So the normal course of events would have been something like this: I would have spent some five minutes thinking about the poor girl having twins, I would have felt really sad, and once the next Whatsapp message came jumping to my screen I would have forgotten about it. But somewhere in the middle of the really sad part my husband pops this: "LET’S ADOPT THEM". To which my only response looked like a popped-eyed emoticon. Well looky look, as if things weren’t crazy enough lately…

Now, that seems like the best option, which is DOING something, not escaping, not ignoring it, not yapping and complaining about it. It just hit me then that I could actually make a difference even if it’s not a big one when you look at the big picture. So this seems like the right choice, but it’s also the TOUGHEST ONE TO TAKE.

Seems like I have some hard thinking to do.