Making my way into new dimensions

Hey Leute :)

I’m Carlos Henrique, born and raised in Campina Grande, a medium-sized city in the Northeastern region of Brazil. There, in 2020, I started my studies to become a Computer Scientist and, in the middle of the following year, I saw the opportunity that would change my life completely: to spend an ERASMUS Exchange semester abroad in Germany, after 21 years living in the same neighborhood. Of course, I didn’t just look at the opportunity. Big changes start with strong decisions, and mine was to grab the chance and make it happen with no further doubts. 

Of course, it was not an easy process. Due to the pandemic, I had to stay the first 5 days in quarantine, alone in my flat with no internet connection, while my heart and my mind were exploding in excitement and expectations. I still remember the first time I went outside and walked through the city – every street looked so beautiful, having so much green, mixed with the colors of flowers, and an architecture that would make me travel in time. Remagen is quite a charming city and living here for the last five months has made me grow as a more independent person. Even though I had impeccable support from the university when it came to bureaucratic and formal procedures, I had to learn how to make daily life happen without referring to help from family or friends.

I also learned that life is not about finding yourself, but about building yourself. Our first lecture in person happened on a hiking trip to the hill in Linz, a village on the other side of the Rhine River, opposite Remagen, where I got the first spike of inspiration to start thinking about the person I would like to become at the end of the ERASMUS Exchange semester. After taking courses like Project Management, Managing Cultural Diversity, and Ethical Leadership, I am now thinking about the person I’d like to be five years from now. Fortunately, while doing the tasks of my academic internship, I have received very clear orientation and subsequent concrete feedback that have been helping me to get each time closer to the professional I would be proud to become.

If you think this sounds a little bit like “all work, no fun”, you couldn’t be more wrong! In fact, I have made friends from all over the world and discovered a few of their cultures, including traditional food, music, dances, and even dialects. I also had a great time exploring the region, the nearby cities, and even distant big cities. I fell in love with the vineyards in the Ahr valley region, became fond of art by the museums in Bonn, Koblenz, and Düsseldorf, and was amazed by the city lights in Paris, but not as much as I was by the architecture in Berlin.
It is safe to say that this experience pushed me to evolve personally, professionally and socially. I have started an internationalization journey that will probably never stop and I can only wish the other ones having this opportunity to be able to grow as much as I did.

Kind regards,
Carlos Henrique Ferreira Fuch