The room was 35°C. The air conditioner had given up, and the humidity was so thick the sheets clung to the skin. But none of that mattered. Attention was fixed on the scratching sounds from the floor—cockroaches darting in every direction. In just a few hours, the internship at ABB Switchgear in Xiamen, China would begin.
Breakfast came in the form of instant oatmeal, stirred with the back of a toothbrush in a teacup, before rushing to catch the company minibus. Thankfully, a classmate arrived two days later, and together a penthouse suite in an apartment hotel was rented for the rest of the stay.
Weeks passed, and the city grew impossible not to love—so much that it eventually became home for the next ten years, working for a German company. What began in heat and chaos turned into the start of a decade-long chapter. That experience taught Andreas something powerful: the future is always within reach—one step, in the right direction, at a time.
