30 October 2012 · Sara Marugan
On my birthday
This article was machine-translated from Sara's Catalan original. The writing is hers; the translation has not been reviewed by a person. Read the Catalan original →
Today, 30 October 2012, is my birthday — and the curious part is that I share it with a twin sister, who is also a secondary-school teacher, though of art rather than Catalan. Happy birthday to her too, from here.
Curiosities aside, today is also the birthday of one of my sixth-form students, Sergio Fernández, who turns 16, and of the daughter of a friend of mine, Emma, who turns two. Her mother, Gemma, and I studied Catalan philology together. Many happy returns to all of them!
On such a special day I realise that my wishes have come true through this blog. I originally put it together for my own students, but day to day the people who have made most use of it are students from other schools, along with other teachers of Catalan — many of them teaching abroad — and people outside Catalonia who want to improve their Catalan.
Today, a happy day, I reflect on my life and its path, and I realise how fortunate I have been to be able to study and to work at what I love most. Having the time to keep the blog, and hearing the good wishes that reach me, fills me with joy as well.
For all of you, now more than ever, I will make a greater effort to review every piece of material I publish and to keep it up to date. Saying it is easy; doing it, less so. I always end up finding mistakes in the exercises, in the notes… once they are already online. But I think that is unavoidable too and, luckily, I notice and put them right in time. Sometimes I become obsessive and turn perfectionist, and then I stop. Dwelling on it is no good either: the next day I see it differently.
As you can see, I never stop working! For all of you and for future visitors, I will do my best to give you a blog worth coming back to, where quality counts for more than quantity — without that stopping the content from growing, little by little.
Thank you for your questions, and thank you to those who have told me in person. It is a joy to know that the effort pays off, and your words help me keep going.
