A few days ago, I was watching this extract from The Truman Show with the students in my philosophy elective. Truman has decided to drive beyond the bridge at the town’s limits and set off toward freedom. The screenwriters, who have up to that point dictated his entire life, throw outrageous obstacles in his path in a bid to force him to return to his scripted life in Seaside, Florida.
It reminded me of when, more than twenty years ago, Andria and I decided to get rid of most of our earthly possessions (which, to be honest, weren’t that many at the time!), put the few things we held dear in the trunk of our car, and head for the south of Spain, to Seville to be precise, where Andria had landed a job at the British Institute. Our first stop was to see her brother, who had recently moved to Montpellier, the town where Andria and I had first met, and where we still had quite a few friends. You can only imagine our excitement at the prospect of our new life far from gray Lyon and the dusty school where I had been working, and our joy at seeing her brother and spending time with friends before we embarked on our road trip to Andalusia. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans—we ended up pulling into Seville on a train a few weeks later because our car got stolen on that very first night! All we had left were the clothes on our backs, but it didn’t for a second make us reconsider our project. To a certain extent, we felt even freer as we drew up our new itinerary, convinced we had made the right choice, despite the obstacle that fate had thrown our way, one that even Truman’s writers hadn’t thought of.
It’s no coincidence that this memory came back to me this week—Spain is highly topical at the moment at The École. This afternoon, 26 of our Middle School Spanish students left for Spain, led by our Spanish Teacher, Arantxa, who organized the trip, accompanied by Javier, Coach Soden, and Laurence Van Koninckxloo. They, too, are destined for Seville. I have nothing but sweet memories of the city and the year we spent there: the light, the smell of citrus, the afternoon heat at times so intense you had no choice but to indulge in a siesta and wait for it to pass, the nights that started so late, the deep blue mornings. Seville makes me think of youth and freedom, of a time when everything was possible. I’m therefore very envious of their trip (I was already very envious of the trip to China last year—another crucial country in my life story), and I wish them ¡buen viaje! I hope their trip is one they carry memories of forever.
I’d like to wish happy Passover and Easter to those who celebrate, and I hope that the parents who had a holiday today were able to enjoy a restful day off while we took care of the kids!