2025 with Muhammet

Now this is a unique post, I would say, as we are about to close the 2025 period, and I thought it would be pretty effective if I wrote down how 2025 was and what we did, so we can also get a broader view of ourselves and our actions. In this respect, I will go through several main phases to reflect on:

Jan: Getting ready and Polatify

Feb–May: Erasmus, classes, and traveling

June–November: Ford Otosan, BSH, bounpassport

]December: Getting ready for Montreal and coping with classes

Jan:  Getting ready and Polatify

2025 started just before I was done with my final exams at Boğaziçi. After completing all the tasks, I flew to Van (a city in the eastern part of Türkiye and just next to my hometown) to see my lovely sister and my niece Miray, my nephew Ali Kaan, and  Oktay enişte. I directly went to Van as I had not seen them for a while. I spent a great time there, as I always do.

Then, while I was there, the exchange results were announced and I got into McGill. To be honest, I was not expecting that, since I thought it would be better to go to South Asia and experience a much more different culture that I had not seen before. McGill was my first choice, and then the University of Tokyo was the second. To be honest, I was not sure whether I should go or not, since I was going to Vienna in just three weeks.

After spending a week in Van, I went to Ağrı, my hometown, so eventually I was with my father and mother. In this timeframe, I started my website that I had been planning to do for a long time. I just bought the domain and started to set it up. It was quite complicated in the beginning, but you get used to it with time. When I was in my hometown, I spent 20 days and had the chance to be with my parents prior to going to Vienna.

Feb–May:Erasmus, classes, and traveling

I do remember when my buddy Fabian picked me up from the airport with his car and I arrived at my dorm (thank you, Fabian 🙂). In February, I participated in both the cultural orientation program of WU and also took a German course. In this month, I met several people and visited almost all the attractions in Vienna, from Musikverein to the Parliament building. However, in the first two weeks, I somehow felt lonely, and that was also okay, since I had a lot of time to spend on my own and it felt pleasant as well.

During my Erasmus, several friends of mine visited me in Vienna: Erkan, Murat, Fatih, Levent, and Betül. I also met a lot of new people and shared many memories with them. Mert (my friend in the dorm) and Steve, my travel buddy in Denmark, Austria, and Sweden, were two of them. The Erasmus experience was, I think, the biggest part of my 2025, and I am glad I did it. I loved Vienna, and now it is a special place for me.

I traveled to eight new countries during the whole period. In Barcelona, I traveled with my friends Meryem and Hacer; in Prague and Nürnberg with Betül; in Ljubljana with Betül and Zeynep. In Düsseldorf, I visited my cousin Melih Abi. Lastly, I traveled alone to Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Malta, and Venice. What is more, my classes at WU were also good, and I enjoyed engaging in class activities in most of the lessons. Eventually, on the 5th of June, I came back to Türkiye and celebrated Eid in my hometown with my family.

June–November: Ford Otosan, BSH, and bounpassport

This summer was also quite busy and fruitful for me. After staying in my hometown for three weeks, I came to Istanbul to start my summer internship at Ford Otosan. I met several wonderful people during my internship there, and I also liked Ford as I learned many new things both about after-sales operations and the automotive industry.

In July, my parents came to Istanbul for my sister Öznur’s graduation, and it was also a great time for me to see my parents at Boğaziçi University. Another important aspect of July was Öznur’s summer school acceptance at Tsinghua University, and she went to China and South Korea during that period. It was pretty interesting to listen to her stories from these countries.

In August, I got an offer to work in the Business Development team within the CRM department at BSH Turkey, and I started my long-term internship, which lasted until the beginning of December. I learned a great deal of information while I was there and also dove deep into the fundamental cores of the CRM department within the Business Development team.

In September, our classes started at Boğaziçi, and I also began my new volunteering role at 180DC Boğaziçi as an Associate of Client Services.

In October, I was thinking about a platform that could enable Boğaziçi University students to share their Erasmus and exchange stories so that students could have a better understanding of these programs in terms of life abroad as well as financial and academic aspects. So my friend Betül and I started to build bounpassport in the fall semester and launched it. This was also a great period with a lot of outcomes.

In October, we also had a short trip to Bulgaria, and it was quite good 🙂

December: Preparing for Montreal and coping with classes

In the last month of the year, December, I was dealing with final exams and also preparing for my new exchange semester at McGill in Montreal. It was a busy period with arranging accommodation, selecting classes, and all the other usual bittersweet preparations. Here is the last day of the year, and I am in Montreal.

I hope 2026 will be beautiful as well, inşallah, and I wish you all health and happiness. Great thanks to my family, Yat Mat grubu, and my friends for making this year beautiful.

(Throughout the year, we had several bad and good news that shaped who we are today. I did not want to mention the negative situations we experienced in 2025, as they are also an indispensable component of the journey.)

Thank you