About me
I’m someone who decided to start this blog to help organize my ideas and also challenge myself. And hopefully, in between, I may manage to be of some use to someone out there.
For the moment, I’ll introduce myself adapting the presentation I gave in my first Toastmaster speech (the ice breaker), which I hope you enjoy reading.
INFLUENCERS
Some so-called influencers: Oprah Winfrey; Cristiano Ronaldo; Taylor Swift; El Rubius.
So, let’s start with this term.
I’m not sure if you are familiar with the word “influencer”, which seems to be quite trendy and popular these days.
It seems to be attributed to people who have thousands or millions of followers in social media, and whose actions tend to have an influence in those followers, regarding what to consume or even which position to adopt towards certain issues. This is a category of people which contains from presenters, singers and actors to people who were unknown some years ago and who have become really popular as a result of sharing their life or hobbies online.
But we can go a bit further with this concept. The thing is, I’m sure we all have relatives, friends, even books or TV programs which have exercised some influence in ourselves one way or another (just a quick example, I started reading Jane Austen after watching an episode of Gilmore Girls, S1E18).
Well, today I’m intending to tell you how some people, without knowing or intending it, have contributed to me being where I am today.
At a crossroads
I remember my last years of high school, in which I didn’t even consider whether I would go to university once finished, and much less what degree would I study. I enjoyed several subjects very different among them, and I had no idea what would I like to work on in the future, but I had a professor, E. Toba, who taught me Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences during the last two years and who, thanks to her way of teaching and sarcasm, arose my interest on these subjects.
When the day arrived in which I had to decide which degree to study, I simply started crossing out degrees in the list in which all degrees offered in Spain appeared until I had only three unmarked: Environmental Sciences, Biology and Marine Sciences. And since the University of Cádiz had the option of studying Marine and Environmental Sciences through a double degree, I just thought: better two than one!
And this is how I ended up living and studying in Puerto Real (Cádiz), where I have met the most wonderful people who became best friends with the years.
The beach of Getares, in Algeciras, with my dog Lasi and Gibraltar at the end.
Discovering the vast world
Up-left: the day when we applied to the Erasmus scholarship; Up-right: in Sweden (Erasmus scholarship); Bottom-left: in Brazil (Bancaja scholarship); Bottom-right: in Barcelona (Seneca scholarship).
One of these best friends (M. M. Cabello de Pando) has influenced my life highly. I never put much thought on doing an exchange and study abroad, but it was on my third year of university that this friend drove me through the benefits of not only applying for an exchange program, but also to go to a country as different as possible from Spain.
This is how I ended up in Uppsala, Sweden the year after. But I enjoyed the experience so much that, grant after grant, I managed to study also in Florianopolis (Brazil) and Barcelona.
A dream come true
It was during my last year at university that my worries about what to do next became more prominent.
One day I started asking myself how would people do to end up working in places such as the United Nations, and I even asked one of my professors in Barcelona, although I don’t really remember if I got any answer at all.
My studies came to an end and, luckily enough, a new grant appeared in my inbox offering an internship in Rome, working as a technical assistant at the Permanent Representation of Spain to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and WFP (World Food Programme).
There I went the following month and, almost a year later, I managed to start working in a small team inside FAO, where I’ve been for the last 2 years working mainly on indigenous peoples’ issues and the International Year of Soils 2015.
Up-left: the day I did the interview that took me to Rome; Up-right: technical assistant at the Spanish Representation to the FAO; Bottom-left: we all assisted at the Spanish Representation to the FAO in different time periods; Bottom-right: at my office inside FAO.
What next?
Up-left: my empty desk after I decided to leave FAO; Up-right: in Hong Kong with my awesome boyfriend; Bottom-left: Málaga; Bottom-right: in Cádiz, my new home for now.
It’s great (and fundamental) to change. Perspectives, opinions, tastes…
Even if working at the United Nations was something I thought I could only dream about and the most I could aspire to, different reasons made that after many months sitting on it, I decided to resign and move on to a new stage.
I would define this new stage as one in which I would like to contribute to something I truly believe in, to create something in line with my principles and take the actions which I consider are needed.
This is why I find myself now in the mysterious and convoluted road of learning how to become an entrepreneur. To this my partner, a British guy I met in Rome, has contributed highly with his vision of the world and his experience also as an entrepreneur (British culture differs a lot from the Spanish one, specially with regards to entrepreneurship).
This is how I decided to leave Rome and ended up in Malaga, where I have been about 8 months. During this time, I have been attending courses, initiatives and various programs related in one way or another to entrepreneurship. Right now I am in Cádiz, where after doing a Master’s degree in entrepreneurship, I decided to change the project I was developing.
Now (2020) I am starting a Master’s degree in Management and Innovation in Food Culture, while developing this new idea that I hope will soon become a reality. I’ll tell you how it goes!