It is now 10 years that I graduated from Junior High and entered High School. After an uneasy start of my teens, in the latter I became the person that I am now. After some thinking, these are some of the things that I’ve learned since:

• There is good people in this world, besides those found close to me. ”The more I meet people, the more I like my dog” doesn’t apply, even though I really like dogs.

• There are two ways to get rid of a bully: ignore him or kick his butt.

• Speaking English doesn’t necessarily make you international. Not speaking it makes you lose out. Regardless of whether we like it or not, it’s the language of globalisation.

• I really hate snobbishness. Knowing you’re from a certain (privileged) group is fine by me, but excluding everybody else just because of that is stupid. I’m referring mostly to the naco-fresa dichotomy and related social illnesses here.

• -20°C is not cold, unless it’s also windy (then it’s REALLY cold).

• It is possible to find love outside of your friends and family, you just have to be brave enough to search for it and wise enough to recognise it and grow with it.

• The first step to become a good (or at least decent) cook is to like food. Everything else flows from there.

• Yes, it is possible to learn languages as weird as Finnish if it’s not your mother tongue.

• I’m actually the only punctual member of my family.

• Don’t assume you’re right only because you know something.

• Search for different sides of a story. That’s why I keep on reading newspapers I won’t necessarily agree with.

• You’re able to learn anything you want as long as you put your mind to it, including (but not limited to) cartwheels.

• Aikido has shown me to flow like water, flexible like wood and strong like stone, the difficult part is knowing when to be each.

• I’m not patient enough to be a software developer, much less a scientist… but engineering showed me how things work, and how to learn how new things work. Now if only humans were so easy, but then we wouldn’t be human.

• Don’t think in terms of us and the foreigners. Think of people like you and me. You might be the foreigner next time.

• There might be more cultural differences between people of your own country than between you and somebody from accross the globe.

• One stupid comment at the wrong time can sour relationships almost forever.

• Help people help themselves.

• All my life I wanted to be an adult. Now that I’m one, I try to keep on smiling as a kid.

• Music makes my day.

• I don’t like most R&B & hip hop songs these days, but Outkast is pretty OK. I’m still mostly a Rock (mostly Alternative, Punk or En Español) kind of guy, but found out that traditional Latin American music (ranchera & mariachi, tambora, corridos, marimba, samba e pagode, axé & tango) are quite nice too.

• Try to keep a clean environment around you, even if you’re lazy. It helps organise your ideas. I don’t always succeed on this one.

• Peace, silence and solitude don’t bite, as long as you don’t overindulge.

• For a techie guy, I can be very political when I want to (and even when I don’t want to).

• 4 years of Models United Nations mean that I am compelled to watch news every day. Not many people of my age group do so, which means they don’t know what’s going on with the world we are inheriting.

• Like Thomas L. Friedman said, ”The world is flat”. A great book, by the way.

I’ll think of some other stuff later on.