A Smarter Way of Achieving My Goals

 

I was at Web Summit the other day and I had one of those moments—those moments that I’ve been getting from time to time since I moved to Lisbon from Johannesburg 2 years ago; it’s this moment where I stop, smile and think wow, I’m really here, this is really happening and I’m so fortunate. This all happened to me whilst Al Gore was speaking, then I snapped out of it, left the arena and ran to catch the underground, I got carried away with the previous president’s speech and I was late for class! I arrived at the lecture about 5min late, but the Portuguese professor (being a typical Portuguese person) was very forgiving and I managed to slide myself into the back row of the auditorium nearly unnoticed.

 

After the lecture, I studied at Nova’s library for a couple hours, went to a quick meeting with some teachers and then some friends and I headed off back to the afternoon event at Web Summit. When we got there, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz was on stage, or maybe it was Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, honestly, I can’t remember—it was someone cool.

A friend of mine from Holland was celebrating his birthday that day so that evening after the event we went for a tranquil walk down the Tagus river until we found a bar with a good vibe and traditional Portuguese atmosphere that we’re familiar with and that has a good rep amongst the students here. We had a few drinks and talked about the day and the week ahead. I walked home at about 10 pm and just near where I live I stopped for a quick, relatively inexpensive meal.

That night I lay down in bed and contemplated how far in life I had gotten just by making the decision to live in Lisbon, it opened so many doors and introduced me to so many people that now I consider my family. The decision made me grow exponentially as a person and made me push myself above and beyond what I thought I was capable of.

My name is Leo and I’m now a part of the Education Network team, I am currently studying a BSc of Business Management at Nova SBE, it’s exciting to contribute and help others who want to follow path that I did, hopefully, through this blog, I can show you how amazing life in Portugal is! – I am always free to help!

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