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I\u2019m from S\u00e3o Paulo, the largest and most populous city in Brazil.<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019d always been used to the chaos of the big city and tried to lead a quiet life amidst that chaos. And it was all very convenient, too. In Loppiano, I found myself far from chemists, supermarkets, public transport \u2013 everything I was used to having close at hand. At first, that isolation drove me mad. Then, little by little, I began to appreciate the sunset after an afternoon\u2019s work at Conto Terzi<\/a>, I began to walk more, to look up at the sky.<\/strong> And, at the same time, I began to realise that that home I was building wasn\u2019t just a place. Home became a girl from the Youth Project<\/a> who, right from the very first days, offered me a safe place where I could feel completely welcomed. Home became my flatmates and my whole daily life:<\/strong> from working out who was cooking or cleaning to moments of sharing happiness, difficulties and moments of madness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At home, being together often meant problems, complaints and arguments. I really thought I\u2019d live alone for the rest of my life, that I simply wasn\u2019t cut out to live with other people. I needed a lot of space to be on my own. In Loppiano, I was always surrounded by people, even in my own room. However, I discovered that living together doesn\u2019t necessarily mean conflict. That different people can build a community together. And to build this, we also had to find a way to understand one another.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d started learning Italian shortly before leaving Brazil and could understand quite a bit, but I couldn\u2019t really communicate. At first, I\u2019d switch between Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese, trying to build bridges between people who still couldn\u2019t understand one another very well. Then, without realising it, we began to live in Italian.<\/strong> And by living in Italian, I also began to truly get to know the many different communities that made up Loppiano.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Work was an important part of this journey. I moved from Conto Terzi<\/a>, where people from different parts of Loppiano worked together, to Ceramica Centro Ave<\/a>, where I found a little family.<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Among all those pages, there is one that holds a special meaning for me today. In February, during a workshop, I\u2019d tried for the first time to put down in writing what I was experiencing. At the time, I\u2019d concluded my account by saying that Loppiano had been, and continued to be, \u201cmovement in the most unexpected form possible\u201d.<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I arrived knowing almost no one, and nine months later, I found myself having to say goodbye to a home built together with people from so many different corners of the world.<\/strong> During our last evening in Loppiano, we chose a flame as our symbol:<\/strong> everything we had received through our encounters, friendships, challenges, discoveries and the mutual love we had experienced together. Each of us would take a part of it with us. <\/p>\n Nine months earlier, I\u2019d arrived in Loppiano without having slept, still unable to communicate properly in Italian and with no idea what lay ahead. At four in the morning, nine months later, I set off again whilst almost everyone was asleep. I closed the door without waking anyone and set off for the last time along that road which, on my arrival, had seemed so unfamiliar. <\/p>\n I arrived in Loppiano thinking I had to learn to stand on my own two feet in the world. <\/p>\n Ana Clara Rodrigues Schmidt<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_text][dmpro_button_grid _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” link_option_url=”https:\/\/www.loppiano.it\/eventi\/gen-rosso-in-concerto-a-loppiano\/” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dmpro_button_grid][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.20.1″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.loppiano.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7.png\")
<\/p>\n
There, my work was mainly about the details.<\/strong> I spent hours and hours on my much-loved \u2018Aurora\u2019 (a depiction of the Holy Family), smoothing out the marks left by the moulds, reconstructing small details and preparing each piece for the next stage. It was work that anyone seeing the finished product would probably never have noticed, but which was essential for that product to exist in that form. At the Gen School, I used to write.<\/strong> A lot. I filled notebooks with the various lessons, questions and reflections. Above all, reflections. I returned to Brazil with three and a half notebooks completely filled with notes and another one and a half notebooks of reflections.
I organised and ran events; sang during Masses and met people I would probably never have met had I stayed in my little corner of the world.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.loppiano.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5.png\")
<\/p>\n
It makes me smile to read it today. Because back then I didn\u2019t yet know how many things would happen in the months that followed.<\/strong> I hadn\u2019t yet met all the people who would become important to me. I hadn\u2019t yet filled those notebooks, spent so many hours with the *Aurora*, sung Tananai\u2019s \u2018Tango\u2019 on endless repeat, organised May Day<\/a> and so many other activities, nor experienced all those conversations, dinners, difficulties, laughs and little everyday moments that I now immediately associate with Loppiano.
Perhaps the thing I couldn\u2019t quite grasp at the time was that that \u2018movement\u2019 wasn\u2019t taking me in the direction I\u2019d imagined.<\/strong>
I set off from Brazil thinking above all about my personal, individual growth. And yes, I\u2019ve grown a great deal as a person, but I\u2019ve realised that being independent doesn\u2019t necessarily mean doing everything on my own.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.loppiano.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4.png\")
<\/p>\n
Today, on the other side of the ocean, I think I understand that symbol a little better.<\/p>\n
This time, however, I knew exactly where I was setting off from.
I am deeply grateful to all the people who welcomed me, supported me, taught me something, challenged me, listened to me, made me laugh and shared a part of their lives with me. To the Gen School, Ceramica Centro Ave and the whole of Loppiano, thank you for everything you have given me over these nine months and, above all, for having lived them alongside me.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I left knowing that wasn\u2019t the most important question.<\/p>\n