Mechanical Engineering

This short journey has changed us, made us grow, opened our eyes and made us better people, introduced us to incredible people and above all made us discovered a side of ourselves that we would never have discovered.  

Alberto participated in 2024 in a Summer Camp of 1 week at XJTU, together with other Polimi students. At the end of the experience, he wrote a message for his classmates.  

Dear “Chinese” friends,

Why do I already call you friends? Friendship is a strong feeling that grows over the years and we have only known each other for 7 days. Why do I call you “friends” instead of traveling companions?

Maybe I do have an answer, because among the countless things we learned during this Summer Camp is that friendship does not depend on the amount of time you spend with someone but on its quality and above all on the circumstances in which that feeling is born. And the circumstances in which we met are very unusual. In a country radically different from ours, a little disoriented but where we managed to create moments that we will always carry with us.

I wrote these lines for you, so that, after these frenetic and intense days, you can stop for a moment, look at your classmates and say “how many things we have done together!”. Even if a lifetime would not be enough to list them all, we know we have lived them and we will remember them forever. Now, try to close your eyes and remember what we have seen, done and learned, the people we have met, the laughs we have had. I got goosebumps, and you?

I don’t want to waste your last, precious Chinese moments anymore, I just want to size the opportunity to thank all the people who made this experience possible: the Politecnico di Milano and our beloved professors.