Future us

My name is Simone Maurício Pinto and I'm 17 years old. My school career started at Externato Nial, where I stayed from 3 to 9 years old and finished my 4th year. Then, I chose to go to the Colégio D. Afonso V, where I stayed until the end of the 9th year. At this stage, I started to get curious about Chemistry. When I finished elementary school in private schools, I decided to switch to public education because I thought I had to learn how to be more independent. So I moved to Escola Secundária de Mem Martins, where I chose the area of science and technology.

After finishing high school, I imagine myself taking a degree in biochemistry at Faculdade Nova de Lisboa. I prefer this area because it brings together my favourite areas (biology and chemistry), of course, it is a hard-working degree however, it gives numerous professional opportunities (such as pharmacy, biology), which for me is great since I do not see myself always working in the same area.

Well now I'm 18 years old and I am 3 days away from finishing high school, I still want to go to biochemistry at Faculdade Nova de Lisboa.

I think it's almost impossible to say that we are ready to go to university because we don't know what is going to happen there but I must say that this subject helped me feel more confident about going to college because I am better at oral presentations, research works, and my lab skills improved. I can say that with all of these changes I was able to be more independent and adaptable to new environments.

With this subject I realised that I am not very good at following orders, in teamwork I have more of a profile of a leader, I don't think that is bad but sometimes if things weren't going well and my group didn't have the same hard work and dedication, I caught myself being frustrated. I think I have to train myself to don't make others work, if they don't want to make it, I won't get bad grades, it's not my fault. I do think that my social and working skills are better, I am very proud of myself for the work that I have done and the skills that I have accomplished.

André:

I don’t exactly HAVE the statements I did at the beginning of the year; I recall taking it and storing it, but it is lost anyways to the void of my computer.

To sum it up I described how I was back then and why I joined this initiative. I know the main reason was that I have always felt like I needed people skills, I also described that I am a good listener but most times I don’t listen nor respond, I also described myself as shy and maybe lonely (and lazy).

Now I see that maybe I was immature for thinking I knew myself or what others thought of me. What I can or cannot do, what I thought impossible is easy now, because I tried.

For a self-description now, I believe that I still have those flaws (being shy, lazy...) but I can tell that I know how to offset them much better, I don’t feel like I have grown as a person but I feel different, not the same.

So now that I sit at the top of this hill, I stare at the mountain up ahead and I think this was good training, an amazing experience and the best opportunity I have ever had.

For a phrase to describe me I say

You are the sum of the people you meet, from good or bad you learn from every experience

Duarte:

Where I’m at and Where I’m going My parents decided to name me Duarte a long time ago, now I’m seventeen just finishing Highschool and ready for the exams, had some fun these last years and made it all count, I took a little adventure when signing up for this subjet and I’m grateful for it it opened up a lot of ideas that I’m now able to take foreword, I’m pretty much decided on continuing my education in college studying Mechanical Engeneering because I’m attached to it since I can remember and I see a future with it, lets see how it goes.

My idea is basically the same but I feel much wiser and capable to take it to another level, when I first entered this subject I was exited but I didn’t know what it would end up being in the end, it made me see things in a different way and basically see that learning and educating myself doesn’t have to be the boring way that I hate, during this time I also made up my mind on what to do next in my life, making that decision much easier. Now I think about studying and following my life in other countries for example, people always told me how great it can be and now I’m very comfortable to give it a try and my parents have the means for me to do such thing.
I defenatly think this subject encouraged me to explore outside the box that we have have been teached to live in.

My first project went really bad, althougt I knew all about the insecticides I couldn't present it well, to be realist it was a garbage presentation.

In my second project I was with Simone, André and Duarte and that helped me a lot with my anxiety, even me apresentating went well, I was really happy with that (Simone helped me a lot, she's like the boss, and a really good friend).

On the third project it also went well, but I need to say that Simone worked the hardest and gave her all to the project. I need to say that I did stuff about our work yes, but Simone was not only the nails but the captain of this ship.

In a more personal view, I can defend me saying that i have this list of mental issues but that doesn't erase the fact that I, at most, did like twenty percent of the project. I also started going to the psycologist and I am starting to learn and accept more of the person that I am. I believe that I have grown as a person in this year but i still don't know if it was in the right or in the bad direction.

I hope all the best to everyone that was part of the project CLT in this year.