The Xerox Box

On one of our wine nights my friends and I – all training to become teachers – were wondering what kind of teachers we would be on the island. F. and I joked that S. would be the emblematic Aruban teacher that drives an SUV and whenever she arrives in the morning, she asks one of her students to carry a Xerox paper box – now filled with corrected tests – out of the back of her car for her to class. We had a good laugh because we all know a teacher who did precisely that.

Nowadays we still use the Xerox Box as a punchline for our jokes about S. Mainly because S. is the epitome of what it means to be a traditional Aruban and because she’s mature and focused on the things she wants in life.

But somewhere in the process the Xerox Box became more than a joke. It slowly became term for the picture-perfect Aruban life.

This picture-perfect modern Aruban life consists of the following things:

• A dog or dogs you take to the beach every Sunday and let lose to play in the sand as the sun goes down.
• Your own car. Because – let’s be honest – you can’t go anywhere without a car on Aruba and you don’t want to keep driving your parents’ car after you snatch a degree.
• Your own house. You probably constructed that house yourself, because that’s the Aruban way. We don’t usually buy houses, we build. Part of owning something is being yours is being there when they lay the foundation. (Though nowadays we need to reconsider that, but that’s a whole different story).
• A stable relationship with another young professional who is as ambitious and excited about life as you are and is not toxic trash with a head full of shit. (Woah, I really projected there, sorry.)
• A good job that pays the bills, allows you to enjoy a good ol’ dinner on that restaurant by the California Lighthouse and doesn’t kill you in the process.

Very well. I have now mentioned these very important points that are part of living the quintessential Xerox Box life on the beautiful island of Aruba.

Lately I have been thinking an awful lot about that Xerox Box. I thought I wanted different things in life, bigger things… But it seems that I have begun a long process of self-awakening where I realized that one of the few things that truly brings happiness is family. That being said, the Xerox Box might just be enough.