Finding Love at Georgian: Melissa and Paulo
Feb. 14, 2019
Today’s Valentine’s Day and we’re sharing a story about two students who found their soulmate in the hallways at Georgian.
Meet Melissa Pauli and Paulo Cardoso. Melissa is a Tourism – Marketing and Product Development alumna (2017) and the Events and Promotions Co-ordinator at the Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre. Paulo is a Business Marketing (Co-op) alumnus (2018) who now works as the Operations Manager for Agema Hospitality. They’re newlyweds who got married this past December.
How did you meet? I met Paulo in 2016 at an Orientation Transition Leader (OTL) training/workshop at Georgian. I was training for my first student position at the college and Paulo was there representing the Georgian College Students’ Association and participating in the workshop.
Afterward, we actually didn’t speak for a while. A few months later, our worlds came together with a Georgian co-op opportunity. We travelled abroad to East Asia (China, Thailand and Vietnam) to implement the Social Innovation and Cultural Exchange pilot project. We worked together every single day, all day, for three straight months. We learned a lot about each other during our travels. Working together non-stop in a country where we didn’t speak the language, and were totally out of our comfort zones, made it impossible to not become close.
In your opinion, what makes love last? Communication. This is super important for us, not just because we both value it so much but also because we’re in a cross-cultural relationship. If we don’t communicate effectively then we would never know how to help each other. Communicating can sometimes be a difficult task, and easily neglected in our busy lives, but it’s allowed us to express our true selves. It also gives us the ability to express our needs to each other, ensure boundaries aren’t crossed and honestly, just have fun being who we are.
What’s your favourite thing about each other? Melissa: My favourite thing about Paulo is his constant desire to help others. He helps others feel loved and included. Since the day I met him, I have been so impressed by how selfless he is. He has helped (and continues to help) SO many students (especially many international students) to feel welcome in Barrie and in the Georgian community. I like that he’s always motivating others to do their best.
Paulo: It’s hard for me to pick one favourite thing about Melissa. We have a beautiful connection, respect and admiration for each other. Melissa is the person who motivates me the most; she’s always pushing me to improve who I am. She’s a changemaker, who’s always looking and thinking how she can help others, as well as how she can make people have fun and be happy. One of my favourite things about her is her laugh and our partnership.
Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Yes, but not in a crazy way. We usually go for a nice dinner, put our cell phones aside and talk about our goals. We are both chocolate lovers, so receiving and giving chocolate on V-day doesn’t hurt either!
What do you do for fun together? We love travelling. We most recently spent a month in Brazil – actually on our honeymoon. We really enjoy going to the gym together and meeting new people to share our experiences with. Also, we love to dog sit! We actually have a roster of about four friends and family members who always bring their dogs over because we love spending time with doggies. We always joke that our house is like a pet spa.
