It is easy to imagine what an experience abroad can bring to us: discover a new culture and impregnate from it, learn a new language, unknown landscapes that become familiar. However, we can only make a vague idea that reality ends up transforming. Although I do not remember what I wondered exactly about the year to come a few months ago, I know I did not guess everything that, today, I take from this experience.
Palermo, a chaotic city full of life, is and will be a home for me, and I will never get rid of the particular charm of Sicily. From the beginning, those who are already not only co-workers but friends welcomed me with open arms and made me feel at home. I’m surprised to have created such strong bonds with certain people.
I now realize how much I have been able to change on so many levels. There have been many opportunities to do things for the first time, as well as to put myself to the test. I have discovered to be capable of certain things that I would not have thought. The activities I have participated in have been very varied – promotion of international mobility for young people, revaluation of urban spaces, designing and writing projects, teaching my language to foreigners. I have discovered the associative world and volunteering from within, in addition to so many other areas that were unknown to me and to whom my experience has opened the doors to me.
In addition to being able to carry out my own initiatives and develop other interests, I have been able to take advantage of many of the wonders offered by the island, the city and learn both inside and outside the host association.
A few months to finish my volunteering, I value everything I have learned here, everything that I take, many rewarding changes, and doubts about what will come later weigh less than the desire and opportunities that are offered from now on.
María.