The Hill, the Dream, and Everything Moving Inside Me

 

There’s a story from Perú that has been living with me these days.
It’s about a 15 year old boy from Andahuaylas, Cliver, who dreamed of being a sports journalist. He traveled almost a whole day to Lima just to cover the Copa Libertadores final (a soccer game event). And when he finally got to the stadium, they didn’t let him in. No accreditation, no invitation, no access.

But he didn’t give up.

Instead, he did something that feels so deeply "corajudo" to me, this way of finding possibilities even when everything seems closed.
He and his friend climbed up to a hill near Puruchuco, and from there, with the stadium glowing below him, he streamed the match using only a friend phone and a tripod.
He stood on that hill with so much clarity, like: “I came here to do this, and I will do it from wherever I can.”

That image feels powerful to me, not just as a story, but as something that touches my own process.

Because I’m also in a moment of waiting...waiting to hear back from my PhD application. And this waiting brings so many things inside me: hope, fear, uncertainty, excitement, doubt… all mixed together.... It’s hard to hold all of that.

But when I think about Cliver, a kid from the Andes standing on a hill in Lima doing what he loves without permission, something in me softens.
I remember where I come from too. I remember the Perú inside me ...the resilience, the creativity, the heart, the ability to construir camino even when the official one isn’t open yet.

It reminds me that I don’t have to put my clarity on pause just because an answer hasn’t arrived.
I can keep showing up for my dreams, just like he did.
I can stay connected with the people, the work, the intentions that matter to me ...even in this in-between time.

Sometimes we’re not inside the stadium yet. Sometimes we’re on the hill. Pero igual estamos presentes. Igual seguimos. Igual sabemos por qué estamos ahí.

And maybe, that’s enough for now.