Another Phase, BUT more COLORFUL!

Hi there,
Yepp, it`s me again, Azar from Azerbaijan, with the second ERASMUS Exchange Semester but a more COLORFUL one. :) Gosh, where do I start? :)

This all started with my sudden decision of staying for a second semester and here I`m saying “hi & bye” to hold me while passing by stories, memories, and writing this. Besides the courses, I`ve started my academic internship as well and this was one of the pleasant pushes for me to get out of that box, closet, and start exploring myself while contributing. Being in different teams with people from different backgrounds, cultures, countries, taking ownership for projects, being a leader, giving feedback, receiving feedback, making mistakes, starting over again, managing projects, etc. I could make this list even longer but, in a nutshell, working with professionals paid off and it created a new version of me, without regrets. I`m so grateful to all of them for being there and carving me to create a new me.

You might wonder what I've got over the year, right? I`m gonna carry with me lots of memories and friendships in my life which I believe will last forever. Friends with such good souls who helped me to get there, find the new version of me, or actually the real me. I`m just so grateful for having them and do not know how to thank them enough. 
Other than that, cultural experiences, friendships, awesome memories from visiting more than ten countries and more than sixteen cities. 

I cannot skip one of the life-changing experiences that happened to me this ERASMUS Exchange Semester, Managing Cultural Diversity, yes, it`s one of the biggest seminars in RheinAhrCampus, but it means more than that to me. After meeting wonderful people from all around the world and hearing stories finally opened another closet for me to get out and I`ve become vegetarian, one of the wonderful decisions that I have ever made. It`s been almost 2 months and the satisfaction that comes after this is just amazing. It might not sound like a big deal to some of you but it was for me. Something was always holding me back from being vegetarian, maybe my surrounding or condition IDK but now I`m here that what matters. Knowing that you are a more sustainable person, contributing and that is something I would say you have to feel, experience, and live it. 
I know that it`s going to be super complicated to live in my home country with the new version of myself but I do believe that as long as I`m happy with this, nothing will be able to change it. So, I will keep contributing to make life easier, greener, and peaceful. Who knows, it might change someone like me as well and help to get out of that closet.

All in all, if you have such an opportunity, go for it! If you don't then create it and fight for it because you will never regret it!

Thanks & Best, 
Azar