Eric, have you ever thought of giving barista classes?”

First I was incredulous. I never saw myself as a teacher; I am too shy and I don’t feel comfortable speaking in public. That happened on a Monday morning, around 9 am, and I was talking to my good friend Livia while getting ready to open the café. She insisted: “your coffee is so good, you are very patient with people, it can work”. I had no reason not to believe her as she would drink my coffee first thing in the morning. “You already work with customers here in the café, it won’t make much difference to speak in public”. Would it be true? I put this idea aside but the question kept lingering. Would it be possible to have my own barista school to teach what I’ve learned on my journey?

God has a plan for each one of us, and sometimes things don’t happen the way we want. My history in Ireland started in 2010. I was very young, learning about life and getting through new experiences: friends, routine, a new language, a new home and that fear of something new.

On top of getting used to adpat to the English language and the particularly hard Irish accent, and of missing home and family, the challenge of finding a job was scary. I met people with fluent English that couldn’t find a job, like my beloved husband Ulgem, who faced daily difficulties with me. Three months passed after our arrival, and as our money started to dwindle, we got a job selling newspaper in the streets of Dublin. We received €0.50 for every newspaper we sold. We would get around €100 per week, which was enough for the bills and nothing else. We couldn’t afford any luxury, and we lived like that for 8 months. We worked under the rain, sun and even snow, which is a rare occurrence for a Brazilian.

We had only a month before enrolling in an English school and renewing our visas and we were feeling defeated because we hadn’t achieved our main goals here: improve our English and get a job that would allow us to enjoy life here a bit. Selling newspapers on the streets barely covered the essentials and it didn’t help us with learning the language, as we didn’t speak to anyone during work. It looked like it wasn’t God’s plan for us to stay here.

We decide to give it another try so we looked for another job. We got a job trial a week later at a café. I still remember my first customer, of him seating down at the table and calling me to get his order. It was all in English, and I was so nervous I was shaking. I couldn’t understand everything so I asked him to point the items in the menu so I could get his order. And that’s how I got my first job in a café. My English wasn’t very good so sometimes I helped in the kitchen as a kitchen porter. That was my opportunity. I had to persist.

After a few months, I asked to be trained as a barista to the owner of the cafe. I saw him as a father figure to me, and he provided me with my first course. I fell in love with the coffee world. I worked as a kitchen porter, waiter, barista and supervisor at that café till I got to a manager position. Those were 6 incredible years.

I found myself in Dublin, and Dublin found me. I’ve learned to appreciate things I never cared for before, I found out I didn’t need to follow every society rule, I started to see the beauty in simple things. Being free to do what you want, to say what you think is right is great but it also some work, and it takes time to learn it. God has a plan for everyone and it may not come to fruition exactly when we want to but it does at the moment we are ready to face new challenges. And this day has finally arrived.

I am Eric, and this is my barista school. I hope to be an important part of your journey.