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My experience in Samos

Getting out of our Comfort zone is terrifying but it helps you grow in every possible way.

The week I spent in Greece made me feel a lot different when I came back. I couldn’t choose only one day of this trip as the happiest day of my life, so I decided to talk about it in general because let’s be honest: it felt like I’d been there for only one day.

I left for Greece on Sunday and I spent the afternoon and the night in Athens before heading to Samos in the morning. As a history student, having the chance to visit Athens was a dream come true. As you may imagine, is a city full of ancient buildings, and everywhere you look there is something historic. I’m not going to lie to you, besides the monuments and some neighborhoods the city does not have the best looks. I saw a lot of degraded buildings and graffiti on the walls, almost like the people didn’t care about those parts of the town.

On Monday morning I left for Samos and there is where I spent the whole week.

During this week I was able to learn a lot of things about a subject that I wasn’t really into, robotics. The thing I liked the most about the robotic part was the presentation the other Portuguese girls and I did. In that presentation, we showed our robot, Julio, and the things he could do because we programmed him to. I think that the people liked it, especially because we had to present it three times.

Samos is a beautiful island. It’s a safe place. You can go anywhere without having to worry if something is going to happen to you and maybe that’s the reason why the parents let their young kids, such as 13 and 14 years old, walk around town late at night, they know nothing is going to happen. It’s also a peaceful and quiet place.

The best thing about this trip wasn’t the place, even though it was Greece. It wasn’t the activities either, even though I loved them. It was the people. Everyone, I got the chance to know. The Greeks, the Spanish, the Romanian, the Italians, and even the other Portuguese girls that I haven’t spoken to before this trip. I did get along with most people and I created friendships and memories that will live with me for life. I could spend hours telling you all my favorite moments and stories like the meetings in Gagou Beach, the dinners in the square, and even those few minutes of walking around the streets with the whole group. So many moments that made me laugh and cry with happiness. I can’t even describe to you how hard was to come back. As I said, it felt like only a day, not a week.

After this experience, I can assure you that I came back with not only more memories but a lot more knowledge as well. I didn’t learn only about Greek culture but also about the other ones. At the time, I didn’t know a lot about Romania and I never imagined how their school system works but thanks to my Romanian roommate I got to know a lot of stuff; I also had no idea how Greek schools work, and being there and socializing with the Greek students made me realize a lot of stuff. It was a shock of realities that made me look at the world from another perspective.

I think it’s also important to say that I feel that I came back with much more confidence, in every single way, honestly. I got the chance to be who I wanted to be and I think that for the first time in my life I didn’t care at all about what people would think about me because I kept repeating to myself “I’ll probably never see these people again in my whole life”. I gained much more confidence and maturity. Whoever said that traveling changes you, is right.

In conclusion, this is an experience that I recommend 100%. When I got into this project, I had no idea what it would turn out to be. I’m so grateful that I got the chance to represent our country. The first thing I said was that getting out of your comfort zone is terrifying but that it helps you grow and I think that now you understand what I mean. And one last piece of advice: Don’t forget to celebrate all the good times and the holidays and make the memories, because memories are going to last a lifetime.

Maria João Dias

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