This school year, we’re welcoming back Junior Lucas O’Connor as he returns from living in Brazil the last two years. Lucas moved to Brazil as his father took on a new position for his job.

“Living in another country like Brazil was very different because there were about 20 million people living in the city I was in,” said O’Connor.

For the last two years, Lucas was living in Sao Paulo, which is larger than the whole state of New York. In Brazil, the primary language spoken there is Portuguese, which was hard for Lucas to accommodate to, so he attended an American school.

Lucas notes that the school there is much similar to the school he attended here in Adel, but this particular school was recognized as an IB school, which stands for International Baccalaureate. This means that the school curriculum is based off of high standards and emphasizes academic achievement.

Also, while attending this school, Lucas was involved in a club dedicated to learning the Portuguese language. When Lucas was not trying to balance out school work and adapting to the new lifestyle, he could be found out on the court playing basketball in his free time.

Lucas also lived in a condominium in a gated residency, due to the increasing crime rates and violence in Sao Paulo.

“The thing I missed most while living in Brazil,” said Lucas, “was my friends from back home.”

Lucas said that he misses the amount of traveling that he and his family did in Brazil.

While living in Sao Paulo, he built many new friendships with the people that he went to school with and still keeps in contact with some on Snapchat and Instagram.

Lucas also said that if he ever has a chance to go back and visit Brazil again, he would really enjoy reconnecting with some of his lifelong pals from Brazil.