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An exchange would do you good

Approximately one year ago I was in Brazil, wondering how I could do an exchange. It was my dream. Travel to another place. Learn from other cultures and see the world with a different perspective. Then, subtly, I saw myself choosing one country, leaving Brazil and heading to the biggest adventure of my life.

Everything started after I find out about Science without Borders, a Brazilian government program that affords scholarships for University Brazilian students to study at international universities. You can choose three different ones who might accept you or not. To apply for that you need to have good grades and prove that have a good level of proficiency in the language of the country you are planning to go.

The first step to apply is choosing a country. Canada was not my first choice. Actually, Spain was. I always loved the English culture but I did not expected to do great in the TOEFL exam, the one who measures your level of proficiency in English. In the last day, before my official application I changed my opinion and decided to take my chances. It was the best decision I have ever made. Sometimes you need to take risks, you do not know what can happen and that is exactly why you need to try.

As I said before, I was not expecting to be accepted so I did not change my routine a penny. I kept studying at UFSCar (Federal University of São Carlos) as nothing special was going to happen. I have never been so wrong. One month later I received an e-mail from my first university option: University Of Toronto. I never thought that I had chances, I was so happy about that, even that they said that was nothing officially right, I choose the courses as they were asking me to do and replied. After a while, when I finally received my Acceptation Letter, well, I do not remember the last time that I get so proud of myself.

            What happened after that? I packed my things, said goodbye to my lovely family and friends and took, for the first time, a flight. When I got here, I was amazed. Everything was so new, culture, language, weather and university. Toronto is a multicultural place that always surprises you with their citizens. The weather is also trickier, one day it is really warm and on the other one it is frozen. The most surprising place for me was the University Of Toronto. It is a totally different academic environment. People are always working in some real projects related with issues that you see in your daily basis life, like problems with traffic, pollution or energy. It was a pleasure to study in a place with such intellectual challenge.

            Now, one year and a half have been gone since I got here. Nothing is really new anymore. You belong to the culture that you first admired. You are part of what you first though that was exotic and different. More than never, you can notice good and bad differences with your home country. And you finally start to miss it. Your friends are there waiting for you, your family too.

            We need to learn to let it go. In the same way that you had to be strong to leave your family for one year or more you need to be strong to come back. It is really hard to leave your new friends, places and new acquired culture. However, as everything in life, different phases must come and go. You need to be sure that you are not the same person anymore. Now you have changed and are a better person, a global citizen.

            If someone asks me if I would like to do it again, the answer would be a loud and clear “yes”. If I knew half of the things that were going to happen to me I would have got the airplane even earlier. There is no combination of words to explain all my experiences. I meet amazing people, went to wonderful places and learnt so much life lessons. I would like to share the best one, after a while you will notice that the most important things in life you cannot buy: friends and family. Finally, there is three main points about all this: Life is too short to die without leaving a good lesson to the ones who will come after you; You need to do whatever you need to do to put your mark in the world; And an exchange it is a life changing experience that you need to have in your life for good.