Lucca De Felippe Nader

Every story has a beginning. Mine started in the other half of the world, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Although this beginning seems very remote to me now, after all this time, my origins are what define who I am. After Sao Paulo, soon after I had just turned four years old, my family and I moved for the first time. Granted, I was very young and vaguely remember this experience, it is fair to assume that this move was not a big change for a four-year-old, especially since the destination was within the same country, in Brazil. Later on, at age seven, we dove into a new experience, this time outside the country. My new home was the country of Uruguay, and this was when the exposure to new cultures started to shape who I am. I had to face the adversity of speaking a then-unknown language, which placed a remarkable challenge when it came to developing social skills. Needless to say, after I was settled in and used to the new language, the cycle repeated itself – I found myself in the country of Chile. Once again, the adaptation process was somewhat rough; however, by now, I was already used to all of it and the language was not an issue here. Same old, same old. Lastly, Atlanta welcomed me as my most recent home in 2013. This was a very difficult challenge for me, as I was exposed to a fully new language, yet again, and was faced with the challenge of beginning a new life right as I was starting high school – where most people already have a set group to belong to. From all of these experiences, I firmly believe that my origins and everything these experiences taught me have greatly molded my personality into one of sociability, open-mindedness and dedication. Everything I do is shaped in some way by my past, which I have discovered to be a very good thing.