“This is me!” Series: Ups and Downs

By itself, coming back from an exchange program is hard enough. J.R.R. Tolkien was right when he wrote: “It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door”. It certainly is! After you get the taste of it, it is difficult to feel satisfaction in normal daily life.

On top of that, from 2015 to 2018 both my professional and personal lives entered into a roller-coaster period. It was learning new things / not knowing what to do, my findings are good / my findings are terrible, finally finishing one milestone / starting another one straight away. During these 3 years, I had to catch up with the courses I left behind to go to the exchange program, to do a Bachelor Thesis in Morohodynamics which was a subject that I had just started to learn, to finish my Bachelor, to start my Master, to finish my Master and to find a Ph.D. scholarship.

Yes - No. Crying - Laughing. Ups and Downs.

But the truth is: this was the moment I definitely realized I had a taste for science. Through this process, I learned that we can study a lot every day and there is still so much to be discovered. The more you study, the more you get to know your insignificance and limited knowledge. In fact, this is the beauty of it. This drives curiosity… and curiosity drives science (as well as coffee)!

I also learned a lot about myself during this period. I discovered that being challenged (to the point that I feel mad) makes me rise and change the game. Not that I think this is psychologically healthy, but it is part of who I am (so far). I learned that I can be very resilient to get to my objective. I also learned firsthand how much taking some rest is vital.

The end of history is that I had to pass through this period to get where I am today and to be wherever I will be tomorrow. Now I just hope I had learned enough to be able to pave smoother pathways in the future.