Rafael Mellin de Campos’1996 (AKA Sael) wrote to us in December 2010: “(…) It’s been 14 years since I graduated from The British School, Rio de Janeiro. Right now I’m 31, married, and a happy father to a beautiful baby girl. I work in the film/tv industry and I enjoy immensely what I do. I don’t mean to brag about any of this, but there’s really not much I can complain in life. Actually, I can’t think how one could be much happier than this. Life’s been pretty good, to say the least.
And I truly believe that a lot of what I’ve achieved in life so far, has to do with what I learned in school. Even now, years later, I often catch myself thinking of the huge role that teachers had in my life – and in the lives of my close friends from the Class of ’1996. We still keep in touch, most of us, and it’s not rare that we talk about the days in school and some of the hilarious and disastrous events we had. And we always remember it all with a smile on our faces, with a great sense ofgratitude and saudades (can’t think of a better word to precisely describe this).
(…) So, the most important thing I want to say is: thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to teach us a lot of what’s important in life. And I don’t mean just within the subjects… Thank you for helping to create the environment that we spent most of our childhood and adolescence in, and that have shaped, in so many ways, who we became as adults.
Thank you for providing us with just the right balance of discipline and care; for knowing when to reprimand and when to forgive. Thank you for insisting to teach students that spent half of the class drawing waves and surfers on the notebook – sorry for that, … And thank you – dare I say it – for the great amount of homework we had! I don’t remember it much fondly, but I admit that all the deadlines and reports taught me to deal easier with a lot of work stuff later.
Well… In conclusion, I believe that the person I became is a direct result of the education I had – from my parents and from my teachers. And I can’t think of better teachers than the staff we had.
I can only hope I’ll have such a positive impact in other people’s lives as my teachers had in mine. Once again, thanks.”