By inepalacios
Saturday March 15 2014, Washington DC, GW Foggy Bottom Campus, my room, 10.15 AM. I just arrived from Miami. Although my spring break is not finished I can’t believe that my trip is over. The new places that I visited in Miami, the new people and the fun moments gave new stories to tell but also unexpected lessons.
Among the typical plans that we organized to do I could discover interesting and enrichments places. Beside the plans that we did as going to the beach, enjoying some restaurants and walking down the streets of Miami, I could meet the faculty staff of one of the best universities of Miami, I also could go to a meeting of the government of the city where I was staying, the city of Doral, and could have a dinner in membership place of the Triumph National Doral Club. How we could do all of this stuff?
It was the fourth day, after to go to the beach, swimming in the pool, hanging out with Pepi´s friends, Pepi and I decided to go over Miami. We walked across Miami downtown, across the Vizcaya gardens: an amazing green space with an interesting architecture, and across Coconut Grove, a nice neighborhood with a lot of spots to visit. Until that moment, I had no idea that what would happen. Juan, one of Pepi´s friend and co-founder of Casimiro Global Foundation invited us to attend to a political debate at the City Hall of The City of Doral. Before the debate, Juan introduced us to members of the International Business Development Advisory Board, the city manager, the city attorney, the major of the City of Doral, among other authorities. There, I had the opportunity to think how much the Argentine debate needs to improve; at the same time, I could identify some generalities regarding the failures of political debates. As a student of Political Science this experienced was really enriching. After that, Juan invited us to have a dinner, that moment was the opportunity to know personally one of most inspiring person that I had know in my entirely life. We talked about his leadership experiences, about young and successful people’s stories, about programs which help young entrepreneurs, about possible scholarships for us. He also invited us to participate in a congress of business innovation for young people; he told us about the possibility to do an internship in his city, finally inviting us to spend the entire following day with him.
If I was grateful for having lived an exciting fourth day, the fifth day exceeded my expectations. We began knowing the faculty staff of one of the best university of Miami: University of Miami, Florida International University and Keiser University. I could learn about a lot of study program opportunities in Miami. At the last university, we could attend to a conference where Juan lectured. The conference was for young Latin American leaders. The leaders come from a variety of offices of a government administration of Chile, Paraguay, Panamá, Venezuela, Dominican Republican and Mexico. Then, Juan introduced me to them giving me the chance to discuss about issues that I am interested in. Among other topics, I heard about microcredit, companies´ help, and the means to improve the economic development in Latin America. While Juan presented the existent means to develop young business, another orator talked about the last efficient government measures to generate economic and inclusive development.
At the end of the day, Juan invited us to have a dinner in the memberships’ place of Triumph National Doral Club, an amazing place. It was a really nice end, not only because the infrastructure of the place was beautiful and the food was really good, also because we met another of Juan’s friend who talked about his success career life. Finally, Juan and his friend told us about different spots to go in Miami and also we arranged to meet in Argentina, where they are going in the following months.
If I was worried thinking that Miami would not have anything to enrich my experience, since the fourth day of my trip I realized that I was wrong.
The last day, although I had not enough time, I decided to go to the beach and enjoy there the last sunshine in Miami. From there, I said goodbye to Miami, with millions of new expectations and possible plans for my life.
I would like to think more about each detail of the trip, but a Puerto Rican friend just called me because she already arrived to DC from New York; she came to spend with me the last spring days. The spring break is not finished yet, but definitely, it gave me worth experiences I’ll never forget.