Camila

My philosophy of life is to believe that a stumble is not a fall, that all experiences – both good and bad – are necessary to build a stronger personality. I became the person I am because of my experiences, even though most of those experiences were failures. At first it was very frustrating for me, but now I understand that without those failures and without my mistakes, I would not be the person I am.

Do your best and work hard in order to achieve your goals

While I was in high school, I never tried hard enough to be a good student because I trusted myself and believed that I was smarter than my classmates. I thought I didn't need to study and I also didn't need to attend all my classes all the time. I was an irresponsible person and, despite that, I was one of the best students in my high school. It became a problem when I finished high school and started college. I moved to another city and started to live alone, away from my family. The lack of support from my family because they weren't with me made me feel very sad. In addition to that, the educational level of the university in Argentina is much higher than the educational level of high school, so I had to force myself to study and learn to give my best, something that I have never done before. At that moment, I realized the importance of learning to be a persevering and responsible person that we have been taught since we are children. All the effort I was making while I was studying helped me realize that it would have been better for me to learn to do my best as a child. I also learned that it is never too late to learn and to change negative aspects of our personality in order to achieve our goals.

My wrong decisions..

It was 2015 and I had started studying law. At first I was very excited about my new life; it was what I had wanted to do all my life and I felt very lucky because not everyone has the opportunity to study for a university degree. I was very grateful to my family because I knew the effort that they were making to pay for my apartment and all other expenses, so I really wanted to do my best to not disappoint my family. At first everything was going well, but then I started making bad decisions. It was obvious that it would happen; as I said before, I never learned to be a responsible person.

A lot of those bad decisions started after I met the guy who is now my ex-boyfriend. He was not my first love, but when I met him I fell in love like never before. I stopped thinking about myself and I made the bad choice to put his happiness before mine. All my decisions and everything I did was to make him happy – even if I wasn't being happy, too. The relationship with this guy became toxic: we were living in different cities and I spent a lot of time and energy thinking about all our problems as a couple. Of course, that was time that I was not using for studying or to do things related to my degree. I did not feel supported by him and I was not mature enough to know that the relationship was not helping me to do my best. This fact – and the fact that when I started studying law I realized that I did not like most of the things I had to study – made me decide to stop studying and return to live in my hometown.

Second chances

After I stopped studying law, I felt like a person with no direction for a long time. At the time I thought I was a huge failure, and it was very frustrating for me because all my life I had had a plan for my future and I had failed at achieving that plan.

I started working at a supermarket because I was tired of being in my house without something productive to do. I had to work hard – eight hours per day – and my salary was miserable. I worked for six months. Despite the fact that I hated working there, that job helped me to realize that I did not want to have that kind of job. I realized that I was not happy feeling like a mediocre person; I knew that I had potential and I did not want to waste it. I knew that I wanted to study at university again, but it was not enough. I needed the financial support of my family. That was what I call the second opportunity. My family never closed the door on me to the possibility of studying; they encouraged me to do it. Not only did they give me the second chance, I gave myself the second chance and it was the best decision I made in my whole life.

My dad as my role model

There is another fact that made me radically change my way of thinking. The fact that my father began studying for a university degree at the age of 47 made me realize the importance of trying again. All my life he was my role model, and his good example of perseverance and resilience helped me a lot in that moment of my life when I was lost about what I wanted for my future. He is the smartest person I have ever met, but he did not have the same opportunities I did when I was a teenager. When my father finished high school, my grandparents did not have enough money to financially support his college studies. He really wanted to study, so he tried to support himself. However, it was very difficult for him, so he stopped studying for the degree. After almost 30 years, being in a better economic position, he was finally able to think about starting to study again. At the moment he is close to being a lawyer. He had an opportunity and he took advantage of it without giving too much importance to how difficult it could be. I am very proud of him, but also grateful for being the best example I could have at that difficult time in my life.

Being happy doing what you like

One thing I have learned from my own experience is that when you find what you really like to do, it is easier than if you are doing something you do not like. I remember when I was studying law, I could not find anything that motivated me to study. I did it because I thought it was my responsibility, but I did not enjoy it and I was not happy doing it at all. This was one of the reasons why I was afraid to study for a degree again. It was going to be very frustrating for me if I chose something I did not like. However, the desire I had to study was bigger than my insecurities, so I chose geology. Why geology? I do not know; I always thought that I did not choose geology, geology chose me. It was my destiny and it is very different from the experience I had when I was studying law. I am really enjoying the process and now I know how doing something that you love has to feel. For me, success is not just being good at what you do – it is finding something you like to do and doing your best. I think that is what I am doing now, so I can finally feel proud of myself.

Surrounding yourself with the right people

It would be selfish of me to say that I became the person I am without giving credit to the people I love. If I was asked a few years ago about the importance of being surrounded by good people, the answer would be very different from the answer I would give today. I believe that part of being a successful person is being surrounded by people who encourage you to do your best. Those people are my family and my friends. My family is critical to my success because they are always my support. I grew up in an environment with a lot of love and support, so I feel that having my family there means that nothing that can happen to me has no solution. My friends are also important to me because they are the family that I chose. Throughout my life, I have had many people whom I called my friends, but some of them were not good friends. I learned to surround myself with the right people by surrounding myself with the wrong people. My friends are people who help me do my best and encourage me to reach my goals. The people I am surrounded by make my life easier, they make me feel blessed. I hope everyone has the same luck as me.

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