"Be the change you want to see"

Here I am again unable to sleep (I had too much coffee again..) so I am going to try to be more productive instead of rolling on my bed and getting obnoxious about it. My plan was to write this next post about two amazing restaurants that I went, but I don't really feel like it. So I will tell you what. You see, I was never exactly this entrepreneur type (maybe only once when I was a kid and tried to sell ugly handmade cards). However, since I started working at BRASPA, things started to change.

I feel like I should give you a little more of contextualization here. BRASPA is a new social business venture that a friend called me to take part. We called it BRASPA - Brasil De Portas Abertas, which in English translates to "Brazil with Open Doors". Since the other members and I have experienced super rich abroad exchanges and learned so much, we envisioned extending that experience further to more young Brazilians. Nevertheless, studying abroad is still something that, unfortunately, is only accessible to a few privileged ones. That is why we thought of taking the inverse pathway: increasing student cultural diversity in Brazil, providing Brazilian students with a greater contact with foreign students, as well as creating an environment of mutual learning and cooperation.

BRASPA is dedicated to offer international students the opportunity to be part of a cultural exchange program in Brazil for their professional and personal development. We provide advice to the students in the search for an educational institution or company in which they can perform their exchange program, plus all the support they need for their stay in Brazil.

It's just a briefing, but if you want to know more about it, you can access our website <braspa.org>.

Anyways, I had always been super alienated, my brother used to say I lived on my own stupid pink cloud, without a care in this world. Although I have studied International Relations, I would rather read Kant, Foucault or Nietzsche than open the newspaper to read about the conflict in the Middle East, even less to know anything local. I got more interested about Asia though, I started to get obssessive about that part of the globe on my graduation studies, but again, mostly about their early Industrialization process, all in the past tense.

But the people that I meet in this Social Business circle are so collaborative and full of will to change things; their energy is so powerful that I too started to feel that passion. I feel inspired and want to be the change that I want to see. I realized how people around me complain (mostly on social medias) but never do anything concrete to change it. I am getting to know so many awesome projects, social and educational initiatives that made me rethink many things. Made me rethink my life. I am starting to develop a conscience.

My whole life I used to say I wanted to leave Brazil and live any other place. The wanderlust always itched. However, now I feel it differently. I now feel like I want to help build something here. I feel like I have a contribution to give.

When I was small I even refused to sing the Brazil's National anthem because I thought it was an horrible insult against Argentina, my birth place. I never bought a Brazilian Jersey and on the World Cup I always cheered for Argentina. After living so many years in Brazil, finally when I went abroad, I felt more patriotic than ever in my whole life. I was glad to say that I was Brazilian. I loved to talk about Brazil and the amazing things and our amazing culture. I was Brazil's finest Ambassadress (but I still had an Argentinian flag on my dorm's room in China). It is confusing, I don't really know if I am Brazilian, Argentinian or Japanese. I guess I am all of it at once. There shouldn't be frontiers anyways. Citizens of the world, unite!

(And no... I am not Socialist).

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