About April.

Mariana Machado
2 min readMay 1, 2024

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April was a busy month. As I mentioned in my last entry, I quit my job in March so I decided to take April to rest and just clean my head.

I worked at the same company for 5 years and I loved it but during that time I never switched off completely. When I went on vacation I would still check slack and my emails just in case something required my attention. Needless to say, it was quite freeing not having any responsibilities for the first three weeks of the month. In fact, it surprised me how easy it was to turn my head off.

When I decided to quit I didn’t have a plan. I knew I had to apply to different companies and just put myself out there. Thankfully, I was privileged to find lots of different opportunities right away, which allowed me to really enjoy my time off without worrying about what I’d b doing next.

During these weeks, I got to spend some time watching series, reading, looking at the sealing and got new tattoos; and I also got to go to Paris for a week.

I’ve been to Paris a few times already but every time I visit, I love the city more. This time I stayed at a friend’s house so it was even more fun to experience the city with people who live there. We went sightseeing, explored different neighborhoods, visited the library and enjoyed a day in Disneyland. It was truly the ideal week for me as I was looking to just rest and see beautiful things.

Once I came back to Portugal, I made the big decision to move to Sintra. I’ve been living off a suitcase for the past 10 months and, although it’s been amazing to travel so much and visit different places, it was time to find somewhere a bit more permanent that I can call home. I moved in last week and, so far, it’s been great. It’s also the first time I’m moving in with someone so it’s very exciting (and also a little scary) to share this experience with another person.

The month began with me being unemployed, in Braga, staying at my mother’s house. It ended with me having a job, living in a different city and experiencing something new.

I’m not going to lie. It’s been tough for an incurable introvert to let people get to know me, gather up the courage to speak up in meetings where I don’t know anyone and still make space for my friends and loved ones. This said, a new month is here and now it’s time to focus on the future.

May will be yet another month of decision-making, visiting different cities and working, but, ultimately, I’ll just continue trying to figure out how to adult.

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Mariana Machado
Mariana Machado

Written by Mariana Machado

I used to dream about becoming a poet and I’ve always loved writing, so I made it my job.