The Butterfly Effect In My Life

Written by Kethlen Cardoso, Coffeyville Community College

Many people confuse the domino effect with the butterfly effect. My mother always said that every action has a consequence, like domino pieces organized in a predictable sequence. But not all changes follow this logic. In the 1960s, Edward Lorenz discovered that in complex systems, a small change can generate dramatic results, such as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings generating a storm.

Perhaps the butterfly effect does not apply only to the climate. Perhaps it is also alive in our stories. After all, how do I explain that just four words would change my life?

When I started dreaming of coming to the United States, I was still very young. Every day my mother took me to the soccer field to train. No matter the difficulties, she was always there supporting me. Years later, when I signed with Coffeyville, I felt like a dream had come true. But it wasn’t just my dream; it was ours, built through all those years.

But sometimes life rewrites our plans without asking permission. We never think that certain things will happen to us… until they happen. It was the day I saw my mother in a hospital, receiving the diagnosis of late-stage bowel cancer. At that moment, everything seemed to come crashing down. Then that e-mail arrived, just four words: pressure is a privilege.

Ms. Karen Ririe was the one who taught me the true weight and also the lightness of this sentence. It helped me understand that the burden I was carrying was not a punishment but part of the journey, because pressure only comes when what is at stake is too important to ignore.

Since that day, my way of understanding things has changed. Today, I move forward to honor my mother. Continuing for both of us is my most sincere way of saying “thank you” and, above all, of having the chance to show all of this in life.

Now, in my second semester at Coffeyville, Karen is already more than the international student coordinator. She is our family. For me and for many others who are thousands of miles from home, she is the embrace that we often do not have and the care we need.

Through every kind message, her presence at our games with her bell, and every dinner prepared with flavors from our countries, she reminds us of something essential: we are not alone. Our culture is still alive within us, even from afar. And homesickness, instead of stopping us, becomes fuel to continue following our dreams.

The butterfly effect teaches that small disturbances can alter entire systems. In human history, these disturbances are often people who see in us what we cannot yet see in ourselves. Karen was my butterfly, who with all her support helped me continue and maintain a high academic performance.

With everything I’ve learned, I hope one day to be the butterfly in someone else’s story. Because pressure is a privilege for those who dare to dream big.

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