Education was my only option to follow a non-linear trajectory in my career and implicitly to decide my own path.

The education system in the Netherlands, oriented towards collaboration and multidisciplinarity, helped me to discover, understand and use the multitude of opportunities that I have right in front of me. Financial resources would not have allowed me to study in Amsterdam without the full scholarship I obtained and without the two roles I held in research and industry.

But in retrospect, looking at the roles in large companies such as IBM and Booking.com, but especially of the entrepreneurial experience, I realized that the effort to overcome this first obstacle is part of a much bigger test. One that stretches throughout life. A test of tenacity, passion and courage that only we can breathe.