Being an EVS volunteer is not always a straight path to follow: you may feel a bit lost the first few days and, in my case, the students in my school thought I was a Student-teacher – it took more than a month for them to see the difference. European Volunteering is a window to a world of opportunities where you are the one to choose what to focus on. It is an incredible scenario to try new things – a workshop you wanted to do, a long-abandoned skill…, whatever it is that moves you. Undoubtedly, there will be moments when you do not really know what you are doing there, far from home and in a new environment that does not always make sense.
Well, you must know that it is completely normal, and it all that goes away eventually. All there is to an EVS is to leave your comfort zone, and once you gotten used to your new routines, you get to see your old comfort zone and how far you have made it. Anyways, the experience is worth it: you learn a lot about yourself, about the other people, about how to run a project and how to deal with everything in a new environment. To anyone that is looking for a new adventure to take on, EVS is waiting for you!
“I think that you can never realize how fast time flies until you experience your EVS, and the truth is that this acknowledge is not so funny to receive, since you start to feel it mostly when you’re about to end the project and you start considering all the things that you could have done and you didn’t, feeling that you hadn’t profit your stay or that you hadn’t squeezed enough the EVS.
Truth is that you’re kind of biased of reasoning since the end is approaching. Luckily for the volunteers, the fact of having to make a Youth pass can bring us back to reality and face all the things that we have done, and all the new skills learned. So basically, everything that the EVS has made a little impact on our lives, and let me tell you, the list isn’t too short.
You might wonder with my post today starts like this. Well, this post will be the last one from my side. Writing today on my 200th day of the EVS means that there are just 10 days left to enjoy, deliver activities, pack all my stuff and leave IPC once and for all (and we still haven’t even started the Alumni Summer Camp!). It is a strange mix of feelings why I’m experiencing right now. From one side I can’t neglect the fact that I’m sad to leave IPC which it has been my home for the past 7 months but on the other side, I can’t wait to see the future projects and enroll in new adventures, mostly thanks to the self-confidence boost obtained during the EVS. But who would believe it? 200 days flew by and I’m still feeling like it was yesterday when I landed in Denmark with my big luggage and my brain full of ideas for the Human Rights Café.