“As an opportunity to challenge yourself, to go beyond your comfort zone, and as a chance of personal growth.”

Shortly after graduating, I had the opportunity to carry out a six-month internship at a Spanish company, which subsequently turned into effectively moving abroad for work. As of today, in fact, I have been living in Spain for one year and a half already, working for the same company as a research technician.

If they asked me to summarize my Erasmus+ mobility experience using a few words, they would undoubtedly be the following: terrifying, but WONDERFUL at the same time! This is because I will never forget the combo of enthusiasm and fear that I felt when the mere hypothetical possibility of undertaking this internship turned into a real destination, with a company available to welcome me and a date, circled in red on my calendar, that was fastly approaching!

My biggest insecurity was linked to the fact that, taking part in the Erasmus mobility programme after my graduation, I would not find myself in a university environment but I would be thrown into what would be my first professional experience, furthermore in another country and using a foreign language.  

In hindsight, however, I acknowledge that all these doubts were completely unfounded, since my Erasmus experience has been for me an adventure that I will always remember and keep forever in my heart.

This experience allowed me to grow as a person in the first place, but obviously also from a professional point of view. During this journey, I had the chance to learn more about a different culture, visit amazing places, learn a foreign language and meet lovely people. Surely, I had to face some difficulties and issues, but I believe that this is also part of the experience and that it was this, most of all, which allowed me to adapt to this new world, mature and improve myself.

At first, the experience of moving might appear as something scary and the questions in this regard might be several: “What if I cannot integrate?”; “What if I cannot communicate using a different language?”; “What if I cannot make any friends?”; “What if, what if, what if…?!?”. Only afterwards you realize how trivial these questions are and that diversity, cultural and linguistic, does not represent at all an obstacle during this beautiful path. Exactly for this reason, the only piece of advice I feel I can give to all students who are considering the possibility of moving abroad is to look at each of these doubts not as a hindrance, or even as a limit, but always and only as an opportunity to challenge yourself, to go beyond your comfort zone, and as a chance of personal growth.