Who says we can’t help to change the world and fulfill our dreams when we are kids?

Since I was 10 years old, my biggest dream has been to help change the world. At that time, I didn’t know how to do it. That same year in October, a girl arrived at my school and told us that she was a volunteer from a foundation called Super Kids, where children from 8 to 12 years old are trained to teach reading and writing to younger children or their peers in different schools. Before leaving, she left some invitations for the teacher to give to interested people, and one of those people was me.

In January 2019, I joined Super Kids and started going to training. In March of the same year, I started as a volunteer to teach at a school. On the first day, in the morning I had two students and I remember one was very friendly and talkative and the other one was very shy; she didn’t want to talk and had some difficulty learning. It was hard for her to answer the questions I asked her, and that made me feel a little anxious. I was afraid that she wouldn't talk to me and she wouldn’t learn anything because I didn’t know how to get her to interact during the teaching activities, but then I remembered that I had my teachers who helped me at all times, and so the fear passed a little.

Every day we learned a new letter and, when they learned all the vowels and some consonants (m, n, l, p, s, etc.), we began to form syllables and words with what we had already learned. A few weeks later we made much more progress: Fatima and Janet already read and wrote much better and no longer confused the letters, which made me feel very proud of all the effort the three of us had put in. We practiced reading story books and sometimes we competed to write words from different categories, such as animals, things, names, surnames, countries, and more. The game was called “tutti frutti,” and the girls loved to play it because it was so much fun. In recent months, I prepared a game that had drawings and syllables taped to a piece of large white paper. The girls had to peel off the syllables, combine them to form the name of the drawings, and paste them underneath. The girls loved this game and, most importantly, they learned new words in a fun way.

The girls taught me to never give up, because every time they failed, they didn’t give up and tried again until they succeeded. They taught me to strive to get what I want, and that despite all the setbacks we encounter along the way, the important thing is to get up and try again until we achieve our goal. All of this made me feel very lucky for the opportunity I had to meet these great girls. I think they were pleased with their achievements and everything they did in the course of the lessons.

On one of my last days, the girls’ teacher told me and my teacher that they both had made wonderful progress and that they were encouraged to come forward to read a text. The most wonderful thing was knowing that they did very well; that made me feel very proud of them and lucky to have made an impact in their lives. To know that this shift will help them in their education is amazing.

When you have a big dream and you think you won’t make it because you’re too young, it’s better not to think about your age, because there is no minimum age to fulfill your dreams. We make decisions about questions like, “What am I going to do today that would change the world?” In my case, I want to change kids’ lives, but actually they are changing mine. And when you make those decisions, everything becomes less complicated for you and those you are helping. The only thing you need every day to make your dreams come true is the desire to do it and have a positive mindset that tells you there is nothing and no one that can stop you — because it is your life, your dreams, and your decisions. No one can change that.

After teaching in the schools, I realized that, together with my teachers and classmates from Super Kids, we are making a change in the world by teaching children to read and write. We are demonstrating that, although we are children, we can also teach and do things that some believe only adults can do.

If you want to improve the world, don’t hesitate to add your grain of sand to make the world a better place and create a better future for everyone. It is worth gold, and no one can argue that each one of us can make small changes every day. Small as our actions seem, they are worth a lot as long as they help to change the world for the better.