Facing the Challenge

 It’s a bit hard explaining how I feel after a month and a half here in Anticoli. 

When I arrived from my home country and my daily life, it felt as if I was living in somebody else’s skin. It’s difficult to get used to living, working and spending your free time with the same small group of strangers. Usually, such immense changes don’t just happen from one day to another. And yet here we are.

Taking up a volunteering opportunity and jumping into an unknown situation is definitively challenging. Leaving everything behind for a year is not a decision to be made lightly, and fear and uncertainty are factors that might discourage people from participating in these ESC Projects.

However, great risks are the price for great rewards. I decided to come here “on blind eyes”, not knowing what to expect, and feeling extremely confused and disoriented.

After many weeks of hard work, I can’t say I feel less uncertain about everything- I am still discovering my surroundings, and, of course, my own capacities. However, I do think that I’ve found a challenge for myself that I can focus on, and where I can give my most genuine contributions to this Project.

And in spite of the uncertainty, the self-doubt and the initial shock, I do think this experience has already given me things that would have been very difficult to achieve otherwise.

Living the international experience with cultures from all over Europe (and even beyond!), learning new skills thanks to a diverse group of talented teammates and being able to put in practice my academic knowledge are not things one can usually do all at once. It takes a lot of personal work, but I also think that is the best way of improving and developing yourself.

Cami.