“Where are you going to study your semester abroad”?, asked one of my classmates from the very prestigious and private university I went to in Mexico, -“I don´t know, but probably I won´t” I replied with a humble, almost melancolic smile. In my university the question was not if you were going to study at least one semester abroad, the question was rather when and for how long. Retrospectively, I can sincerely say it was never a problem for me, I was certainly surrounded by many wealthy people from the whole state but I do believe I never lost my essence but I actually learned to interact with very different people and backgrounds. At that point you don´t see it but it´s really a life lesson for your professional life and in general.

You probably wonder how I ended up there? 😉 I have been blessed to have a very good and comfortable life in Mexico but we were definitely not rich. I was always a bit nerdy and dedicated to school and sports basically but otherwise well behaved, quiet girl. Today I don´t believe good grades are a real indication of anything and it doesn´t mean you will succeed, but for my generation (and perhaps still today) at least in a country like Mexico I do believe it´s something that can bring some good opportunities to your life especially in terms of scholarships and enhancing the level of your education.

I got myself a high percentage scholarship to one of the most prestigious universities in the country, in a similar concept than American college where you have to pay some of that loan after you graduate. I can proudly say it did change the way I saw the world, and most importantly it opened the door for me to study in Spain eventually. I don´t know what would have happened had I studied somewhere else, and I´ll never know.. the only fact is my university influenced me directly in achieving that and for that I will be forever grateful. I may have forgotten a lot of the academic stuff I learned but not the tremendously hard work they demanded from us in every subject and the involvement in extra classroom activities, but I´m deviating now, that is information for another blog 😉

So why Madrid?

Another scholarship, yes 😉 I told you good grades do have a meaning at the very least for this. One advantage of a famous university is it has different programs and connections to other institutions and private organizations supporting education. Then the “Beca Santander” (Santander bank Scholarship) was published on Campus. This would provide financial support to study one semester in the University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), the requirements didn´t seem too complicated and I applied.

Did I get it after I applied and I travelled happily to Madrid? Well… actually no… and ironically this is why I like this story.

I applied and as part of the process I needed recommendation letters from different professors. Since I already mentioned I was for the most part a role model student, then this was not difficult to get but it meant that at least some people knew about my process. What made it mode painful for me not to be selected, is that the university announced the “finalists”, so I WAS part of the selected group of 13 finalists but in the end they would only pick 6 places from applicants in the whole country. Really, I´m trying to understand the extra emotion or what the intention was but for me it was difficult not to be in the last 6, I was told I was really really close but my heart was broken. Also, as I was announced as finalist, it got people attention so I had to reply to my professors asking how it went and I just wanted to hide under a rock. Ugh, just remembering it makes me sad even though I know how it ended a year later 😉

The main takeaway from that experience though, is it was the first time I actually and realistically thought it was possible to “cross the Atlantic” as we say in my country. I thought I had a possibility to go to Europe once in my life, and I think that´s the reason it was so painful to let go of that. I knew very well for my family it was already an important financial effort to pay my partial tuition and having me and my siblings living comfortably in San Luis Potosí, so I never even dared to say oh by the way now I want you to send me to Europe. I was 100% aware and thankful to be in such position in the first place, but anyway…. I understood that was only one opportunity but hopefully there would be more and I just needed to constantly look for them!

The second and lesson learned is I realized I needed to do something different, or in academic terms I needed to get involved in MORE things because the extra-curricular activities tend to be important for this kind of situations. Good grades alone are not enough but it´s appreciated if you help the community or do other things. Immediately after I reached to some of my friends who were normally in every university event 😉 and tried to follow their example. I ended up in the Electing Committee and the Student Counsil for the Business Administration career, I joined the sports teams again and I was already in the University´s Musical Theater program.. Most importantly I got my first job ever as a trainee, even though I still had couple of semesters go to so let´s say it was not strictly required from me yet to do my mandatory professional practice but I wanted to start to gain experience and have a more impressive resumee for the next scholarhsip opportunity. Needless to say I had no life for a while, sometimes I would be at the office at 6 am, go to university, come back to work, back to university, etc… It was exhausting but it paid off.

In fact the same Madrid opportunity was announced, I did the process again and this time I had to write an essay. Till this day I believe my writing skills and my essay did the job for me. Obviously I put a big emphasis on the previous year experience, how difficult it was, my background and all the things I did differently or started doing after that to improve myself, how much this would make my family proud and all the reasons, etc etc

I remember receiving the congratulations e-mail while I was working at Continental, I knew I would receive a response soon so I couldn´t even sleep those days but time time it was positive. It was one of the happiest days of my life!! I called my parents and my best friends to tell them, everybody was excited but not more than me. Europe! Spain in particular but to me Europe… the times still before big social media, when things were still more shocking and fascinating. By that time I was 21 years old.