A contribution to Leave No Girl Behind by Annamaria Riccardi
I was 13 years old, sitting on a bench in Regent’s Park. I was looking at the ducks in the pond, mother duck and all the ducklings swimming behind her in a straight line. It was a sunny, clear day, so unusual for London, with fluffy white clouds in a pale blue sky. I looked at the trees, some a deep green and others a pale sapphire changing as the rays of the sun shone on the leaves. The flower beds were a triumph of colours, yellow daffodils and pink crocus, spring roses and tulips everywhere. It was like looking at a painting, only this one was real, living with sounds and movement.
I thought: “this is beautiful, and I want to remember it forever.” so I stared at the scene without blinking for a long time, until my eyes were burning, then, I closed them really tight and held the picture behind my eyelids, and it was like taking a photograph. To this day when I want to recall it, it comes back to me in clear, vivid strokes of memory.
What made that day memorable was the thought that came to me immediately after: “it is not enough to say: I don’t want to forget, but I should say I am happy now, at this very moment.” So, I made myself a promise that I would always be aware of what was happening to me and around me. I would look for ,and find what was beautiful and good and fun, and most of all I would search for those special moments, and I would strive to create them for myself and those around me.
Perhaps at that age I could not express my feelings in so many words, but, an awareness was there in my brain and in my heart, a feeling that stayed and grew with me. I could make a change, I could better my life, I could dream and strain to achieve my dreams.
You are not sitting in Regent’s Park, perhaps you will be staring at jacarandas or banana trees instead of daffodils, but still you can close your eyes and hold the image and plan the future, because “you are the future.”
Annamaria Riccardi is the International Vice President of Sales for GNLD International, a global, multi-million dollar company. Annamaria joined GNLD as a Distributor 25 years ago at a time when she was a housewife and mother of two young children. Since then, her amazing success has inspired countless women around the globe to follow her lead and succeed on their own. Today, Annamaria travels around the world, continuing to share her remarkable insights, her contagious enthusiasm and her personal story of empowerment.