When all the deliverables are done, everything that lasts is gratitude, love, friendship and amazing

One of the first things I heard when I got selected to IBM Corporate Service Corps was to enjoy because time flies and when you realize, everything will be over - To be honest, I could not believe it, because one month, in my case, more than 30 days, is a great amount of time. - Naive me. When I look back, it seams like yesterday was my deployment day, getting into the airplane to India and now, I am here at my home awake very early because of jetlag and with everything to keep as great memories and great friendship to keep for a life time.

In the end of the assignment it is almost impossible to get time to write about our routine because everything is happening so fast and at the same moment that when you get back to your room the only thing you can do is to take a shower and sleep. The last week of the assignment we get so focused to finish everything we want to deliver to our clients that sometimes it is hard to relax to sleep. Anxiety takes over and a great amount of emotions too.

To summarize, all the teams were able to deliver amazing work for their NGOs and I am very proud of the work my subgroup delivered to READ India. On Thursday was the day we presented the Deep dive session to our READ India CEO Geeta Malhotra, READ India director Smita Anand Rai and our Pyxera Global partners Kabi and Veronika and finally our IBM India representative. It was a great presentation, we were able to cover all the deliverables, get into detail for the main ones and finally get a hug from our READ India team. I, of course, cried a lot. I am a crier, I cannot deny it, but the amount of emotions that take over when you are about to finish your assignment is just too much to handle. It is a mix of feelings of gratitude, love, happiness, pride and also sadness because you know this moment will never come back again.

I am writing this post and the amount of feelings come back again, because I start to remember how hard it was to say goodbye to each of the people we spent one month together. Of course it is harder to say goodbye to those who we stayed more time together and the one that broke my heart into pieces was to say goodbye to Robert and Bernadette, my subgroup friends. I take a moment to breathe here as I write this because I miss them already =). Robert became my maple-brother - as he is Canadian - and was the last person to say goodbye. I still don't know how I could stop crying when heading to the airplane, because that moment I knew, there was no turning back. I know all these strong relationships will continue and that one day or the other I will meet them again. That's maybe how I convinced myself to stop crying: the hope to see them one day.

I never thought this experience would transform me so much in a personal level that you cannot even imagine. I had the opportunity to meet amazing people, who transform the lives of entire families in need like Geeta Malhotra and all READ India team. I had the chance to experience the culture in every detail, have a deep dive into flavours, smellings, thoughts, beliefs everyday. To see these strong people making the difference and doing their best for others is very inspiring and inspired me to try to do the same here in Brazil. Let's see how it goes and maybe this blog will not end in this post.

Thanks IBM, thanks IBM CSC, thanks IBM Brazil and all my management and friends who supported me and helped me to have this amazing opportunity. And a BIG Thanks for all the entire CSC India 38 family who made of this opportunity unique and as perfect as it was. With love and the hope to see you again,