By Samuel
I went to Belém to participate in COP30. For 3 weeks, I had the pleasure of volunteering in operational support for the negotiation rooms. With a letter arriving just a few weeks before the event started, I had to buy tickets, book apartments, and organize all the details for staying in a city I had never set foot in for almost a month, and during an event that would mobilize over 60,000 people.
I arrived in Belém on October 30th. The first thing that caught my attention was the thermal shock: extremely humid heat, little wind, and a scorching sun. Since I’m from an island in Northeast Brazil, being so close to home but with such a colossal difference felt almost like a culture shock. My first day in Belém was marked by heat and lots of insects.
By the end of the first week, everything took on a larger scale when the Leaders’ Summit put me face-to-face with presidents and representatives from around the world. From Prince William of England to state ministers from countries like Somalia, breathing the same air as the climate future was definitely a calling for what the Gap Year really represents. On the same day, I had the pleasure of crossing paths with the President of Brazil in one of the hallways. During the brief words we exchanged, I mentioned my admission to Duke University, and I’ll never forget that he asked me just two things:
- Why was I going to college outside of Brazil instead of in Brazil?
- You are coming back, aren’t you?
Little did I know that, throughout that week, in various informal and quick conversations with Brazilian state ministers, governors, mayors, journalists, congress members, and senators, that honest request/question made by the President became a calling.
Now, mind you, that I could spend hours writing about these 20 days at COP, telling a thousand stories about protests, fires, break-ins, unexpected encounters, nuclear energy, fossil fuels, and even my discovery of foreign languages. But nothing will top the purpose that was found for me there, in those cold hallways full of people in suits deciding the world’s politics on climate change. A request made by my President was echoed by so many other public administrators, by my work there, and by those intense Amazonian 4 PM storms.
I don’t know what else awaits me during this Gap Year, but I know that if it ended right now, I would already be the most fulfilled and complete person in the world. Because what I received during the last few months is something I would never trade: knowing my country, knowing my purpose.
See you guys in January, when I will be departing for my next adventure — now in the heart of Brazil. Happy holidays <3
Pará, Brazil. November 20, 2025
