Ana Paula's Journal

Everything is Possible if You Make a Decision

Have you ever thought about what shapes your personality?

The amount of challenges we experience throughout our lifetime determines our personality and decisions made. At the very least, the confidence we gain by enduring such difficulties and recognizing we can face hardships with intelligence and a level head, inspires us to see threat as a momentary menace we are capable of overcoming. It is by initiating the change of your process that you will succeed, this ability to analyze both positive and negative experiences that happen at every step along your personal journey. However, this process does not guarantee success, it is its path that matters and the successive attempts that will lead you to where you want to go according to the decision you have taken.

By sharing a part of my life in this blog, I would like to show you through my very personal  experiences how my words match with my factual reality.

Since I was young, life has never spared me challenging circumstances. No gifts, no favors, so was it. Along the way I faced prejudice, humiliation, abuse, violence, and death threats. My teenage eyes have witnessed death three times. I was robbed 15 times at gunpoint, kidnapped four times, and held by criminals countless times. It is by learning the mastery of these dangerous predicaments that my father bravely supported me through, that I consider to have come out of it, to live today in Paris, Capital of the country which I have always dreamed of being a citizen.

My childhood was spent in the region of Brazil known as Amazonia. Life was simple and we had to be resourceful in order to survive. We fetched water from a well to cook, wash the dirty dishes, and shower. I walked two kilometers twice a week to scrub our clothes in a local river and climbed trees to harvest fruit for an afternoon snack.

Unlike most children, there was not much time to play or be free in my childhood because I had to focus on helping my family buy groceries like bread, chocolate milk, cheese, and Coca-Cola, all things that were otherwise too expensive for us. With my father’s permission, I started working at the very early age of 9, selling sandwiches and popsicles at the school gates during the week. On the weekend, I worked as a manicurist and private dance teacher.  These life experiences and circumstances served me well as an adult and to solidify my resilience.

So full of ambition and the will to get out of it, I decided to make the most of my father’s heritage and to explore the world. Though I loved my family, I wanted to learn more and discover new horizons. I was a child with big dreams beyond my childhood home. Given the living conditions in our town, no one could imagine a different kind of life. There were no aspirations beyond our home because, in our world, it was just impossible! Nevertheless, I could not be satisfied with the beautiful and safe world that my family offered despite this jewel of love, I needed other dimensions that they could not bring to me.

Find Success in the Midst of Adversity

My achievements have been accompanied by sacrifices and bad experiences.

I have met good people and cruel people. Both types have contributed to my personal growth and how I view the world, both have shaped my personality. Good people have helped me to understand the importance of love and have served as an inspiration throughout my life. Cruel people have taught me to be a fighter, defending my opinion and my existence. Most important, they have fostered a determination to make my things happen as I wanted.

I have not achieved all of my goals yet; I may or may not, but I know that whatever happens is up to me. Life is made in moments; one day, everything can be fine, but, on another day, everything can be hard. Experiences are what life is about. You need goals to keep yourself going, and you need difficult moments to learn more about yourself. If you lose faith in yourself, you could lose everything.

Having a career in a foreign country can be a challenge. This requires knowledge of the country you live in, including its culture, language, and local customs. We need to define a clear strategy and set realistic but ambitious goals. Anything is possible when you take the first step and make a decision, your decision.