If curiosity brought you here, then welcome to my world! :)
I like cats. I'm a 'morning' person: I like to wake up at 7 am on a sunny Sunday in the summer, have a fulfilling breakfast and go out for a walk or for a bicycle ride. I enjoy smiling to strangers walking their dogs or their kids while strolling around this small town.I arrived in Cantanhede roughly two years ago. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, with blue skies, olive trees all over the place, a peaceful environment full of apparently happy people. Perfect scenario to write up a thesis!
Apart from my partner I didn't know anyone here. I didn't had a car or a bike at the time, and to reach the nearest town it could take me 1h30. As the days went by, I desperately needed to meet people and get some new numbers in my cellphone, for a coffee!
I signed up for the gym - I am gym person. I don't take group classes, due to my lack of coordination skills I end up spending the whole class laughing and being a distraction to others... :) So, I kept my gym routine, lifting weights slowly, pushing the limits on the mat, and chatting with healthy active people! I met great people who I can call friends today.
Next, I joined the 'Associação de voluntariado de Cantanhede' looking for a small project where I could be useful. My task was to engage the young children in the recycling process while they are at school: the less bulky garbage the school produces, the more it can save in the monthly payments spent on rubbish collection. So, I prepared a talk where I explained the importance of producing less rubbish and to split the one we produce, which in turn had a direct impact in their school's conditions both financially and environmentally. I was amazed by their ability to listen, to ask questions, their interest in being part of solution as a whole, and how most of them already recycled at home.
Since my return to Portugal I had decided to quit research as I know it. I wanted to do something else, to work towards some realistic goal with an impact on people's lives. I felt I could use some training and I signed up for a post-graduation in pharmaceutical medicine. I really enjoyed the course. I met people working in the pharmaceutical industry, in biotech companies and from governmental regulatory bodies. All of them seemed to have a busy and dynamic life, full of commitments and responsibilities, which looked fascinating to me. Most of them are passionate about what they do, despite the countless hours they put on the job. I wanted to feel that way again.
I looked for any internship in the clinical research field, I contacted numerous recruiters, head of departments, hospitals and medical research centers: they either didn't had vacancies or they didn't want to have a PhD working along them. Sometimes I think I tried too hard, I must have looked desperate, when really I just wanted to be productive and feel useful to society.
I finally got an interview in March for a 6-month internship in Lisbon for the minimum wage starting in September 2013. Despite my contacts I only heard back from them on the 30th July, the day after I signed up for the post-doc position. I turned down the offer but I managed to pass it over to a younger student from the course. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. I got married on the 27th July, talking about life-changing decisions in 3 days in a row! ;)
I haven't stopped looking for an opportunity in biotech/clinical research industry, but I cannot afford to be out of a job for longer periods of time. I also took a couple of part-time jobs during the post-graduation course: one as a marketing agent for a brand of credit cards (Unibanco) and another one as a consultant agent at an insurance company. Both of them involved direct contact with the public and a sense of 'product value' that I hadn't experienced before.
And that's it... my life so far in Cantanhede since 2012! :) Looking forward for new challenges!
