From Dream to Reality: My Journey as a Student-Athlete in the USA

In 2022 I had a dream: going to the United States of America as a student-athlete. So, on the 27th of July 2023, I started what has turned out to be the most difficult experience of my life to this day. Six months later, I was returning back to Portugal and friends of mine or people that knew me would ask "What happened?" "Didn't you adapt?" "Didn't you succeed?" "Didn't you like it?"

So here I will be sharing my overseas experience as a student-athlete: what I went through, what really happened, some differences that I felt, what went wrong, etc.

On the 27th of July 2023, as soon as I arrived in Chicago and checked my phone, I saw that I was 11,000 km away from home, my family, friends—basically everything that I knew until that moment—and I was alone. I didn't know anyone, but I had one more plane to catch, this time to Fort Wayne, Indiana, close to Huntington where I would be staying.

The first month was very hard for me. I had to adapt to a new lifestyle and I felt a giant culture shock. For example, in Portugal I was used to having dinner at 20:00/21:00, but there I was having dinner at 17:00 and going to bed at 21:00 because I was exhausted. I was waking up at 5:30 (still dark outside) so we could get one practice in first thing in the morning while fasting to get in shape faster during preseason. We were doing fitness tests almost every day during this first month. After practice we would finally have some breakfast and then do community service for the rest of the day—we only stopped to eat. So, as you can imagine, I was exhausted at night and didn't have energy to do anything.

Pre-season came to an end, and classes and non-conference games started. At first everything was going well until things started going bad. I was not performing my best in soccer and that started affecting me—it was like a giant snowball going downhill. I lost all confidence in myself. Going through that alone without the family support that I was used to was very hard, but my teammates, who at that moment were like brothers to me, helped me get through this difficult chapter. Soccer-wise, I didn't perform well overall. I think I took too long to adapt to a different playstyle; it was more physical and I had less time to think. Perhaps I should have spent more time in the gym.

Education was very different too. I was majoring in Computer Science, and there, while majoring in Computer Science, you take classes like Psychology and other subjects not related to computer science due to the type of education system. It's called Liberal Arts Education. I remember writing an essay comparing education in Portugal and education there for a class called "English Research and Writing". Before going on this adventure, I had completed a year at NOVA School of Science and Technology in Portugal, and I felt that education in Portugal was better and I would be better prepared by continuing there. Academically, I was doing well. In Computer Science core classes I was doing really well, and in the others I was doing well. I was averaging a B+, which is 85-89%.

When soccer season was over, I had more time to explore the surroundings, so I visited some big cities. I went to Chicago 3 or 4 times and Indianapolis 2 or 3 times. I went to Fort Wayne more frequently since it was a lot closer—just a 20-minute drive. It was a big city but not a major city. My dream was to study close to a major city, next to the skyscrapers, but I was somewhat isolated from major cities. I was 3 hours away from Chicago.

The first semester was almost over and I had to make a big decision: either come back to Portugal and then return to the USA, or come back to Portugal and stay there. Overall, things were not going well, and I thought I would be better off in Portugal, so I made the decision. Of course, the idea of living in the US is still in my head—I would love to have the experience of working for one of the FAANG companies.

I don't think this experience was a failure—quite the opposite. I don't regret going. I loved the experience and I am grateful that I had it. I feel like this experience gave me a lot of personal growth. I made some friends for life and this will be a lifetime experience that I will never forget.