With the smell of coffee brewing in the background, you can hear the chatter of Alexandra Diaz while she recalls the best memories and struggles from college. “I’ve always wanted to study abroad and I just loved the idea of traveling”, moving to Brazil to attend Universidade Federal Do Rio De Janeiro was a hard thing to do. Although being far away from her family, she stood by and loved her choice of college, “ It’s one of the best brazilian colleges and it’s a federal institution, so i didn’t have to pay for it.” she beamed about UFRJ.
Lexi graduated in Biomedicine after studying for 4 ½ years. “ I always loved discovering how things worked on our bodies and everything that involves our Immunology and Pharmacology” she expressed with excitement and passion in her voice.As soon as her college years started her view on things changed drastically and she realized she really had to study to understand things. “ I worked really hard; studying on my free time paying attention and taking notes.”
Lexi was shaken up and that fact that she was attending one of the best brazilian colleges. She was fresh out of high school not having much experience in life and her mind set was set to the way a high schooler would act. “ I wasn’t very independent but more naive”, Lexi describes herself. She’s proud that now she realizes that she wasn’t a grown up in college and that she was still a child because realizing that helped her evolve.
Lexi came to truth with this when her grandmother got sick and she had very little time. They were always close and when she heard the new she just “sorta gave up and checked out of life”. “ I was a mess I didn’t want to go to classes to work or even talk to anyone” states Lexi. This went on for a couple of months until her she got a call from her grandmother and her grandmother told