Life is like a book. You write it and you live it by chapters. As you may know I started my university studies in Lisbon and then in 2007 I changed to Aveiro University where I applied to be here in Tampere for one year. And so it happened. I changed once again in 2008 to Tampere, Finland - The Land of Ice and Snow! This year I scribed on my life one of the best chapters that changed me forever. This was a fairytale. I got completely in love with this country, with this people, with everything that I've seen and lived here. Here I made friends for life, I met amazing people, persons that made me feel that the world is huge and at the same time small, where we are so different and so similar as well... This was so overwhelming that I decided after a couple of months after my arrival that was pointless to take pictures for example. The feeling that the places, the people and the situations give me are impossible to put inside a photo. All these feelings and experiences are inside me, they belong to me, they shaped me and they are going to be with me always wherever I will be.
It is impossible to describe what I've lived and I'm living here. This was unbelievably good! At the end I look back to everything that happen to me these last two years, specially this last one and I feel that I found what I was looking for without even realize the importance of this step. I feel that here is the place where I want to be now. I learned that I should not plan my life in medium/long term because is simply not possible and I like that. I feel that we should think in our objectives, follow the guidelines but somehow leave some space for changes that may appear on our way. With the changes that happen to me I've ended up to this point where I am now. I'm going to stay in Tampere two more years and I couldn't be happier for that! At this point it was everything that I wanted. I will continue my studies and look for a job where I can start something, something that I would say that is another chapter of my life. I have the support of everyone, I have my friends in Tampere, never forgetting my good friends from Portugal and the ones that now are going to be spread all over the world.
One point that I realize is that the persons that I found here, people that I've met, especially the ones that I consider Friends are crucial for me to want to stay. Without them my commitment to stay the two next years would have been impossible. After this period I have no idea what is going to happen, actually I don't know how these two years are going to be, although I can have an idea about it. I will keep the plans short and live everyday. James Dean once said "Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you will die today". And I see that it makes more sense nowadays to me. I will keep this in mind and my face to the sunshine, smiling every day.
