Sandra Fernandes

Hello dear “colleagues”,

My name is Sandra Fernandes, this is my first experience as a University student and this is an attempt to present myself to you.

I was born on the 27th May 1975, in Porto. I lived there, studied there and at the end of the 12th grade I stopped studying so I could begin working. At that time I though, as probably as many of you might do, that I needed to become more independent from my parents and the only way to achieve that was getting a job and starting to have my own money. What a dreamer, what a fool! I’m sorry for those who still think like I did because if there’s something I regret in my life is the fact that I hadn’t continued my studies then. I don’t regret much in my life, almost every step I took I did it with full consciousness, but stopping studying is a huge exception.
Had a few jobs and at the age of 22 I left Porto and moved to Lisbon! I did it for love :-D yes, once again I admit that I’m a dreamer! Although this I do not regret!

After being in Lisbon for almost one year, I received a job offer to join the IT (Information Technologies) department of a new mobile phone company and began my career as a “Systems Engineer”. From that moment on I’ve been working in the same company.
Since I finished school I’ve been yearning to go to the University but I guess I never had the courage, and I had to keep up with my new duties (house, car, everything to pay from my own pocket!) so I couldn’t stop working. Now I regret I haven’t done it before, “I’m loving it” and after all, being away from school for 14 years makes a “nice” difference! It’s quite singular to be in a class with so many fresh minds… huuuummmm… how I miss those days, that vivacity, those “were the days”!!! So if you allow me to dare I’ll leave you a piece of advice: Enjoy it well, listen, observe, learn, and have loads of fun!

I am a very nostalgic person! I have “saudades” of being younger, of living in Porto, of my family and friends (which are still living in Porto), of not having responsibilities :-D But being older hassn’t necessarily brought bad things to my life, I have my own house (don’t have one with a garden and a dog, YET), I have my bombastic Peugeot 206 who I gently baptized as my “Garanhão”! I have good friends who I know I can count on, I have a nice job with nice colleagues and even nicer salary which allows me to do the things I like the most, such as travelling and being here learning English with you…

What made me apply for this course were two main reasons:

First I’ve always loved learning languages, if I had continued studying at the age of 18, I would have probably become a teacher or an unemployed person :-D
The other reason that made me want to go back to school was the fact that I’ve always wanted to learn more all through these years I’ve been learning a lot, from the courses I took and all the jobs I had, but now I feel that it’s time to learn something that I choose, something to make me feel that when I’m studying I’m not just learning, I’m having great pleasure from this.

And that’s all I’ll write about myself for the moment (as if 589405 words weren’t enough), I wish you all a pleasant journey throughout these 3 years!

See you next Tuesday,
Sandra