EVS Stories: Embark on an adventure (I) – by Jorge M. A. Esteban

Hi, my name is Jorge and I embark on an adventure that I never thought I would do.

I am from Alicante (Spain), I am 29 years old, and I am a graduate in “Sciences of Physical Activity and Sport” with Master in “Sport Performance and Health”. Since I finished my studies I worked in a sports center (C.A.Montemar) as a fitness trainer and tennis coach until I had to leave it to be selected to come here.

I have never been abroad for more than a week, and even less have I done it alone. My English is poor and always I have been a lazy person. And now you will ask: Why? And, why now about to turn 30 and leaving work, home, family, and friends behind? Being honest, even I ask myself as I write this, but you know what? At the same time, I love the feeling of discovering a new facet of mine. I never thought that I would be able to risk and leave all my life behind and less for something that is unknown to me.

I may lose people, jobs and things for being here, although I know that many of them will recover when I return because it is what I want, but to discover oneself and see what is capable, is invaluable, it is as if you will go to the next level as a person.

It is true that I have only been here for two weeks, and that the first two days were critical for me since what I expected was not the same as what I found. But I am Jorge in Level 2, and even if Jorge Level 1 had already gone home with his tail between his legs, Jorge Level 2 endure and struggles to improve his surroundings by always seeing the positive side of things.

I also have to say that all this I have not done alone, all the people I have been meeting in this short part of time, the little places that I have been visiting from Baia Mare city, and all the people I carry in my backpack from Alicante have helped a lot. Without all this, I do not know if I would have been able to get it.

You only live once so take a risk and you will be right, you will fail, you will laugh, you will cry, you will enjoy or you will suffer. But at the end of your life, you can say: “I HAVE LIVED”!

Jorge (Spain) is hosted in Baia Mare by Team for Youth Association, in the “IN4EVS” project, an European Voluntary Service financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus Plus Program.