By summerstudent Heloise da Silva>
One month ago, I had never been on a plane or even visited an airport before, let alone traveled to another country. My life was familiar: I have been working on a project for almost three years in Brazil, knew my way back home, knew which train to take, and how to behave properly. I could even handle groceries by myself, which in Berlin, feels like running a marathon because you have to be quick — the line moves fast!
But upon arriving in Berlin, I felt completely out of place for the first few days. Imagine being a 21-year-old student who had never done such “ordinary” things as traveling abroad or flying. Imagine being in the middle of your bachelor’s degree and suddenly not knowing anything about your new project. Imagine discovering a new life while everyone around you seems already accustomed to it. It sounds challenging, right?
An advice (or maybe three) for whoever is coming next
- It is not fair to compare your journey to others’. Only you know the challenges you’ve overcome to get where you are. Yes, I was just a 21-year-old girl who flew and went abroad for the first time. But I was lucky and blessed to have this opportunity, an opportunity that many students might never get in life. Then, instead of thinking about how long it took me to get this chance, I am concentrating my energy on how fortunate I am and collecting a lot of memories to share with my family and friends after the program.
- We are always rushing, feeling the need to be prepared for every new experience. But you don’t have to know everything immediately. For the first two weeks, I thought I wouldn’t get any good results, because the topic was really new to me, but this is called learning! I often forget that great things take time, especially scientific discoveries and projects. Getting used to a new science project is not simple, even for someone working on their PhD. So, take it easy on yourself!
- Exploring the unknown is a life-changing experience that has shown me I am capable of doing anything even if it is completely new. If you’re afraid of it, that means you’re about to do something significant and transformative. At first, even taking the bus felt scary because we don’t have bus turnstiles in Berlin!), but right now, I could say that I got used to it and it doesn’t scare me anymore. I am here to learn about science but also about German habits and life in general.
Now, three weeks later, I have some resolutions (and a different perspective) about the questions that troubled me at the very first beginning.
Discoveries are not only about science…
Talking about science, I often feel that it owns my life and should be my only concern because an academic career consumes and demands a lot of time, effort, and dedication. Yet, an inner voice always tells me, “You should enjoy life outside the lab.” Only living in another country for two months has shown me that overthinking about my project will not help me at all throughout this process. Here, I have discovered that one of the best ways to do science is by being mentally healthy, which means having a social life for me. Going out to museums, trying new foods, taking photos with friends, meeting new people and exploring the city (especially flea markets <3) has been a discovery of myself as an individual which directly affects me as a scientist.
I must say that it already seems that the person writing this right now might not be the same person at the end of the internship. But I guarantee you that one thing will never change: my eagerness for life and new experiences! This is only the beginning and I am really thankful that it has started in Berlin at HZB!
On the author: Heloise da Silva is majoring in Chemistry at University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. Currently, she is expanding her academic and research horizons as a summer student at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). Her project focuses on the study of MXenes, a class of two-dimensional materials with promising potential in various fields such as energy storage, electronics, and materials science.