Thanks to my parents

Hello everyone, today I’m here to share a more personal text. I felt a strong urge to express my gratitude after reflecting on my life journey, the struggles, the moments of giving up, the successes, life goals, and everything in between.

Everything has led me to a profound sense of contentment, being where I am, forging my path, building my family, and striving every day to become a better human being.

To reach the point where I am and continue the process of evolution, I had significant influences, assistance, affection, disagreements, and even fights with my parents. Without them, I would be nothing (literally).

At the age of 16, almost at the end of my high school years, I already had in mind the course and field I wanted to pursue, but I was extremely lazy. I skipped classes, didn’t study at home, only studied enough to pass the year, and thought of myself as too dumb.

I had always been a scholarship student (half-scholarship), thanks to my mother who would stand at the school’s doorstep every year to secure that discount. Given this entire situation and my lack of maturity and commitment, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get into a public university. I tried the entrance exams for both the federal and state universities, but without success. I also applied to well-known private colleges in the region and got accepted at IESAM in Computer Engineering.

But then that thought came to my mind, ‘Damn, another debt for my parents,’ and right after that, the sadness of not giving them the pride of getting into a public university hit me. So, I decided that I wouldn’t want to attend the private college I had been accepted to and that the next year I would try to find any job.

After sharing this idea with my mother, she immediately rejected it and said she would find a way to pay for college, and I shouldn’t worry because she was proud that I had been accepted. She encouraged me to pursue this path and focus on the dream of becoming a computer engineer and being the first engineer in the family. Obviously, I cried; my parents rarely showed these types of emotions to me and my brother.

So, after finally getting into college, I started getting to know myself better and discovering effective study methods. I began to realize that I wasn’t as unintelligent as I had thought. I dedicated a lot of time to subjects outside of college. I practically lived there. I sought contact with professors who were already developers or researchers, and they introduced me to topics related to development, robotics, and information security. One of them encouraged us to participate in programming competitions. It was an environment where I made friends whom I still cherish today and where I met my wife, who was studying Communication and Multimedia—all thanks to my parents.

I am privileged to have learned from them the value of hard work and dedication. They taught me lessons in entrepreneurship and life. My father, a self-employed worker, and my mother, a nurse technician, both warriors, always guiding us toward the path of education.

My mother is an incredible example of determination. After my graduation, she decided to pursue a college degree herself and succeeded, completing a degree in Administration without failing a single subject. She had stopped studying for years and hardly knew how to use a computer. She continues this journey; she’s relatively young (forty-five years old) and intends to pursue another degree. Watching their path, I couldn’t choose a different one. If she, a homemaker, working outside, a mother of two, financially supporting us with her sales of cosmetics, beer, juices, food, and her job, managed to earn a degree and is now completing a postgraduate degree, why would I indulge in not wanting to study or inventing excuses not to do it?

I can only express my gratitude to them for giving me a vote of confidence in the beginning. It was crucial for me to reach where I am today, to secure a good job, a nice home, and stay determined. Dona Iara and Seu Luiz, thank you for everything, thank you for investing in education, thank you for your guidance, thank you for sharing your life experiences. I’ve learned so much just by observing you. I love you both dearly, and you are my foundation.

Today, I strive to help those who are just starting out, aiming to make an impact on as many people as possible. And all of this is thanks to you, with your unique ways of teaching and showing me the right path. I want to thank you once again for believing in my capabilities when I didn’t, for supporting me in all the endeavors I take on, for taking pride in having a son who is a speaker, which I find absolutely wonderful. The pride they express in their words is a unique feeling.

This feeling came to my mind today, and it gave me an enormous desire to write and share a bit of my story with everyone.