"It's amazing what you learn when you step out of your bubble."

BarcelonaHelena Torras, an independent advisor and technology investor, loves summer. June is usually busy, but after Sant Joan and the change of season, everything takes on a different feel: classes are over, everyone relaxes, and then July arrives, which, for her, is a month of friendships, summer dinners, saying goodbye, and going out to the terrace. In August, the focus is on family, although they combine different plans: "I don't only associate summer with vacations; throughout the months, it allows me to have moments of relaxation on all levels, and that's when I review how the school year went and what I want for the next one, especially this year when I'm turning fifty."

Although summer patterns are similar, they're never the same, and she especially remembers one from many years ago, when she was a teenager. Helena wasn't allowed to go out much. Her parents were so overprotective of her that she didn't even go on school and college trips, but that trend changed radically the summer of her fifteenth birthday. Then she convinced them to send her to a very special summer camp: "I went abroad to learn languages," she explains excitedly.

The initial proposal was for him to spend a week at a boarding school, studying English in the mornings and French in the afternoons, but once he arrived, he called to beg them to let him stay for another week, and they relented. It was a very intense fifteen days that gave him plenty to do: "I slept because there was no other option; otherwise, with my desire to meet people, I would have used every hour," he admits.

She felt fortunate to spend time with young people from all over the world and learn so many things. Languages, of course, but the most important thing about this adventure was the respect for other cultures, the realization that friendships can be maintained over a distance, that language isn't a barrier to connecting with someone, and, above all, that she could thrive on her own without the need for an umbrella or anyone to hold her. That trip didn't mark a turning point in her family's willingness to go out, but she values it as a gift that opened her mind: "It's incredible what you learn when you step out of your bubble."

This desire to go off and explore is a pattern she's repeated throughout her life: daring to go alone and deliberately avoiding doing so with others, aware that this option gives her greater freedom to get to know herself and others. "I've evolved a lot since then; 35 years have passed, but it was the first opportunity I had to discover who I am," she says with satisfaction.