This morning,
everything was new to me — the weather, the language, the people, the speed limits on the highways.
I’m Leo, I’m 21, and I’ve just traded Germany for Portugal.
Some people seem to arrive in life with a ready-made three-step plan. I, meanwhile, am still figuring out what I’m actually good at. That’s partly why moving to Portugal for a while and supporting Rato-Adcc felt like the right kind of leap.
And instead of coming up with a poetic explanation for why Portugal of all places — and why Rato-Adcc — I’ll just give you the honest version: pure chance. Most deadlines on the European Youth Portal had already passed; I didn’t want to go to Hungary, Latvia, or Slovakia, and the naïve belief that Portugal is basically eternal summer sealed the deal.
the summer
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What Rato-Adcc does for the local community, what they stand for, and what they’re working toward — their website explains all that far better than I could. As for what exactly I’ll be doing here, I’ll figure that out in the next few days.
https://www.rato-adcc.pt/en/about-us
Right now, my Portuguese consists of a polite “Obrigado” and a series of overwhelmed facial expressions. We’ll see how long it takes before the words stop sounding like I’m chewing gravel. Luckily, our language teacher is endlessly patient. – (One of us speaks Portuguese. The other two chose coffee instead ->)
If you also have that little spark of curiosity that peeks out from behind your doubts and worries every now and then, push yourself and turn thinking into doing. Nothing else really works. I’ll let you know over the next few weeks whether that piece of inspirational-poster wisdom actually holds up.
