Referring back to the article 'How I Started Working', for those who missed it go read it, I had accepted an internship at Atos Italia, a consultancy firm specializing in IT services, with its main headquarters in Bezons, France, just before leaving for my interrail trip. To give you an idea of its scale, Atos reported an annual revenue of about 12 billion euros in 2020, with 110,000 employees operating in 73 countries (and yes, I was one of them).

My office was located in South Rome, near the EUR district, quite far from where I lived. Throughout my university years, I had lived in Piazza Bologna, specifically at Via Catania 50. Without calculating distances or commute times, I accepted the offer on the spot. Spoiler alert: the commute was roughly an hour and fifteen minutes by public transport—metro to Laurentina, followed by a bus ride to the office.

When I accepted the internship, they informed me that the first month would be dedicated to an on-site Academy: an intensive training program, complete with a final certificate, to prepare us for the actual job. This training was organized in Rome for all participants coming from across Italy.

September 2022 arrived quickly, and I returned to Rome earlier than planned, bidding an early farewell to my beloved summer in Calabria. On September 1st, I showed up for the induction. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect: I had never seen the office and had no idea what this experience would be like. All I knew was that a long journey under Rome’s scorching sun and heat awaited me, so I decided to travel light, wearing just a T-shirt. However, just before entering, I stopped outside to change into a shirt and added a few sprays of cologne-to make a good first impression.

I arrived in the lobby and found five other participants: three guys and two girls, all visibly older than me. As soon as I saw them, I immediately felt out of place. I kept repeating to myself, 'What am I even doing here? They must have made a mistake.' I was only 21. After some small talk, I learned that the two girls already had two years of work experience, while for the other guys, just like me, this was their first real job experience. Despite this, the feeling of being out of place didn’t go away. I felt too young, almost like an intruder among people who already seemed to know what they were doing. I was completely out of my comfort zone.

Eventually, everyone starts working, but the truth is, I didn’t really feel ready for that moment. I mean, you know that when you finish university, the time comes to start working—it’s natural. But in my case, I wasn’t mentally prepared. I had definitely underestimated it; I hadn’t planned on starting like that—the circumstances had simply brought me there. The strange thing is that I felt conflicting emotions. On one hand, I was excited because it was a job perfectly aligned with what I had studied, with what I was theoretically supposed to do in life. On the other hand, I felt a strange kind of pressure: that sudden leap from university to the working world made me feel a bit lost, almost as if I were accelerating for no reason.

A man walks up to me—or rather, someone in their 40s (I never know how to describe these situations)—and asks, "Are you here for the Academy?" Already nervous, I reply, "Yes." Then comes the follow-up question right away: "Which module will you be working on?" Panic. I had no idea. Trying to buy time, I awkwardly say, "Just a second, let me check my email." I open it, read, and answer, "FICA." He looks at me and says, "Ah, F-I-C-A," and I, in a barely audible voice and maximum embarrassment, reply, "Yeah... that’s right." I sit back down on the couch, wishing I could disappear. That person would later become a key figure in my entire professional journey.

After that awkward moment, the five of us head up to the sixth floor, where the induction begins. We’re handed our laptops, everything gets set up, and they introduce us to the company. In the meantime, I hit it off with one of the guys, a certain Diego, and we end up chatting quite a bit. The day flies by, and at the end, I realize he also lives near Piazza Bologna. By a stroke of luck, his friend had come to pick him up in a car, and they offered me a ride. So, after just an hour of knowing him, I found myself sitting in a car with him and his friend. Just like that.

We exchange numbers and agree to meet up the next day. The Academy, after all, wouldn’t be held at the office but at another location, the Seraphicum, near Laurentina. We decide to go together, and that random little connection became the first anchor point in an entirely new experience.

Looking back on that first day, I realize that some of the people I met turned out to be pivotal for my journey. Who would have thought? It’s fascinating how situations that initially make you feel out of place can, over time, become the most crucial pieces of your growth. In the end, feeling out of place in certain contexts is normal, and it’s precisely that sensation that tells you you’re stepping into something new, something unexplored. And really, what’s so bad about that? It all depends on whether you’re willing to embrace it.

Of course, there are different kinds of "out of place." I can’t imagine myself going salsa dancing in a club, for example that’s definitely a type of out-of-place that doesn’t feel like me. But then again… who knows? Maybe one day I’ll find myself there, laughing at the thought of how convinced I was that it wasn’t for me. Because, in the end, many things that feel like mine today started with a firm “this isn’t for me.”