My story - Celeste de Jesus - The Portugal News

My parents met in a very unusual place; my mom was studying to pass her driving license test and my dad thought it was a good idea to help her out. I guess it worked because here I am.

My parents fell in love and they eventually got married, however a funny thing that happened was that the first time my dad tried to marry my mom, he had just finished working and he hadn’t even taken a shower and my mom just took one look at my dad and told him that she wasn’t going to marry him if he didn’t take a shower and put on nice clothes. So, my dad got ready the second time and they eventually got married. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any family in the country, so they only got married on paper and never got the chance to have those elaborate weddings like most couples.

After everything, they had me. Sadly, I was born in 2008, right as the crash of New York happened, and because of that, my parents were forced to move to Brazil, because that’s where my father had work available for him, and my parents also had the support of my father’s family.

I spent almost 12 years in Brazil, living most of those years in the south of the country; however, I also spent some time in the Nordeste, in a state called Piauí, because of a job opportunity my dad got when I was little.

After living in the north of the country for a while, my parents decided to move again to the south, where my father’s family lived, and I ended up growing up there, in a state called Santa Catarina.

Now that I’m more grown up, I don’t remember my childhood as detailed as before; however, I still have some good memories of my time in Brazil. I remember I used to do theatre with a friend of mine and we would have a lot of fun doing it; we even performed a few times in school plays. I also remember playing in a band, during competitions in the school and for other events. It was rewarding to practice and then be able to show our skills to the parents and also to the little ones who would watch us play. Another good memory I have is spending time with my friends in the playground that was in front of the school.

A fun fact about me is that I took my grades pretty seriously for a 11 year old girl and I had never gotten a bad grade or anything below a 9, cause in Brazil the grades are from 0 to 10, and I remember that in a test in 5 grade, I think, I got an 8,8 and I was so shocked and upset with myself that I started crying. I never cried, especially at school, so my friends were worried about me and they asked me what was wrong so I told them my grade and I’ll never forget my best friend’s face, she looked at me and she was like: "girl be quiet that’s an amazing grade, besides I should be the one crying I got a 7", after she told me that I was like "Opps! My bad". So yeah, I guess my obsession with getting good grades started young.

Moving to Portugal

However, out of the blue, my parents told me we were moving to Portugal. At first, I laughed because I genuinely thought they were joking, but no, they were dead serious about it. Before moving, we spent some time in two different cities to decide which one was better to move to, and at the end they settle down to Algarve and they started looking for schools to transfer me, because the whole point of moving was for me to have a better education and most importantly, for me to live in a safer environment, cause the city I lived in wasn’t as dangerous as the rest of the country, but it wasn’t safe either, because a friend of mine was robed in plain daylight and in front of our school.

The change of countries was a bit difficult, because we didn’t know anyone and we didn’t have any family here to help us, so it was basically the three of us and a new country. I think out of everything, saying goodbye to my friends was the hardest, especially my best friend, but apart from that, I didn’t feel bad or sad about moving, even though I did miss the city in the beginning.

The first week was a bit complicated; everything was new, and we didn’t know where anything was, but we eventually found a rhythm that worked for our family. Unfortunately, one day my parents sat me down and they told me my father had to go back to Brazil, because he had business that he had to finished and things that he needed to sort out, so after some weeks of living in Portugal, my dad went back to Brazil, and it was just me and my mom. It was weird in the beginning, but then I started school, and my mom started working, so on the weekends when it was just the two of us, we created our own routine, and it was alright.

School

I could lie and say I was super happy and confident on my first day of school, but between us, that’s not really who I am. I was very nervous that either nobody would talk to me or that nobody would want to be my friend, because I was starting school in the middle of the year. However, to my surprise, after the first class finished and the teacher left, all the girls turned to me and started asking questions and wanting to be my friend. I was very happy and also surprised that they were so open to new people that fast. The class was divided into two, so in some breaks, I would spend time with one group of girls and on other breaks I would spend time with the other girls.

But unfortunately for me, COVID happened, just when my father was going to come back to Portugal, but with the virus around, not only did we all have to go home, but the country closed its borders, and my father was forced to stay behind. Because of the virus, we spent the rest of 6 grade and the beginning of 7 grade at home, however we were able to go to school during some part of the second term and in that time we had a new student joining us, her name was Soraia and she was south African and she was very shy, especially because she didn’t know any Portuguese. But for her luck, we all had to go back virtually since the cases of Covid-19 got worse. For some reason, we started talking through Teams, and a fun fact about me is that before I met Soraia, my level of English was horrible, because I was always scared to make mistakes while speaking or writing so I never really tried, but since she didn’t know any Portuguese and I didn’t know any English we had to meet half way, she would try to say things in Portuguese and I would google translate what I wanted to say to her, at least we were at home so it was easier than if we had to communicate face to face.

Confidence

In the course of time, I became more confident with my skills, and we started talking through calls, so I was forced to speak the language, but she helped me correct my mistakes in a way that didn’t make me feel judged. After some time, we came back to school and we started hanging out, I myself had my little group, so I tried to include Soraia in the activities and we would speak mostly in English, because she wasn’t really confident in speaking Portuguese and I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, so I tried harder to make my English at least understandable. This only made us closer, and we started to hang out outside of the school, since we were still during covid, we only hang out in her house, but we would have a lot of fun, and we eventually became each other’s best friend and I appreciate her every day, because she’s the reason my English is the way it is today. During that time, my mom was able to get a better job and a better house for us, so we moved yet again.

After 3 years of being just me and my mom, and with COVID slowly decreasing in danger, Portugal decided to open their borders again, and so my father was able to come back. He got used to things much quicker than us, but at least the family was reunited again.

Now I’m living here for about 5 years, and I have to admit that even though the path was a bit rough and with so many obstacles, in the end, I have an amazing friend group, loving parents, I’m living in a much safer place and school is going great. I’m excited to see what the future holds, but one thing I know for sure and which my mother taught me since I was little, is that I’m going to travel a lot and I’m going to meet new people and experience new cultures.

My name is Celeste de Jesus, I was born in USA and raised in Brazil and Portugal. Hardworking and academic, my dream is to graduate in Economics and Finance, travel to different countries and grow professionally with commitment and dedication.