Before I came to Italy, I had just graduated from high school. I had some ideas about what I would like to do, which kind of studies I could start and what subjects interested me, but everything was disorganized and overwhelming in my head. I knew that I wanted to do something that didn't deal with concrete plans for my future. Something I could put my skills into uninfluenced by future ideas, something in which I could invest my energy and contribute to. My only and probably biggest worry at this time was waking up in a structure that wouldn't give me the space to contribute myself.
From the first moment, I felt comfortable. I got the opportunity to meet new people, saw who I would be working with, and was shown the places where I would spend time in the future to implement projects and activities. All of this felt good right from the beginning. Since those first few weeks where I was able to slowly focus on what I would like to do, what my personal goals and my association's values/ goals are, and where I would like to contribute to, a lot has happened. I got the opportunity to try myself in different areas. In some projects I could think creatively with others and develop ideas, in others I could learn how it feels to animate a group and give input, in another I experienced how it can be to work out and implement activities and projects together with a group of young people. In all these different roles and projects I have learned a lot, just as I have been able to consolidate or discard insights I already had. What I did not expect was, that this whole experience would make me so happy. When I mean happy, I mean this: Since I've been here I've been able to deepen my passions, I've been able to indulge in old passions, I've written more poems and stories, I've photographed more, I've dreamed more, I've ventured into new passions. I have started to draw. All because my head and my heart were so receptive. Open to everything beautiful and everything new and offered so much space, for so many thoughts and dreams and wishes. In the midst of the projects I found so much peace to give space to it all and that was one of the greatest and most beautiful realizations for me. When I look back at what I've experienced so far, I'm filled with feelings. I look around me and see so many people who mean a lot to me. People who have become my friends, people with whom I have worked and who, over time, have become like a net of colorful threads. A net that gives me security, trust, consisting of people who give me smaller and bigger tasks and responsibility, but at the same time never put too much on me. Without weights on my shoulders, but with as much in my hands as I wanted to and was able to carry, I got to know me better. The fact that I can say this confidently, means a lot to me. All this shines bright and colorful and is something on which, I am sure, I will build on. It is a foundation that lets me move on gently and gives me the longing to return again sometime.
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