Next level in the IEP!

December 6th - 8th meeting with Norelly

I met Norelly for the last required time in this course on the 6^th of December at our usual spot in the Recreation Center.  Norelly was sitting along with her good friend Denily who was just giving Norelly some company until I arrived.  Norelly seemed to be really happy today and I asked her the reason for her happiness and she told me it was because of the tests.

Norelly had many reasons to celebrate.  Norelly’s finals for the IEP were last week.  She had a writing final and a reading final.  Norelly did not want to proceed to the next level because she wanted to redo this level of the program.  She felt like she wasn’t comfortable enough to start learning tougher material.  Norelly’s writing test was on a scale of 6 and she prepared well enough to get a 3 she said.  “I wanted to get a 3 so that they would keep me back in this level”, she said.  But Norelly ended up getting a 5 on the essay and is now proceeding to the next level.  What this means for her is that she will be finishing the program earlier than she wanted but it also means tougher course work.  She was happy nonetheless.  Norelly joked then by saying that if she had prepared for a 5, then she would have ended up with a 3. Also, since she was done with her finals, she was now officially on break.  She enjoyed the fact that she wasn’t required to do any homework or complete any assignments.

Norelly also told me about her Christmas plans.  She told me that she was going to be at home spending time with the people she loves minus her daughter because Amanda, her daughter was going to spend her Christmas at her friend’s place.  I found this quite unusual because I have always known Christmas laying heavy emphasis on family. Norelly told me about her unorthodox upbringing in Venezuela. She told me how in Venezuela, people didn’t spend time with their family but with people that they always had a good time with. “In my family, we didn’t want people to spend time with family just because they were obliged to!” If I look at it her way, it makes some sense as it is important to be happy with someone else during the festive time rather than not enjoy yourself with family.

Finally before we left, Norelly thanked me for all the time that I put into spending with her and my patience in hearing her out.  I thanked her back for being great company and sharing things about herself and Venezuela which I would not have known otherwise. She then gave me a hug and told me that she will definitely stay in touch with me. Norelly also told me that she will probably be needing my help with her coursework set to become tougher. I told her how happy I would be to help her when she needed it. 

I took a picture with her before leaving and this is the first picture I have with Norelly