EVS Story: Letter to future volunteers (V) – by Baptiste

Hello from Romania. I am Baptiste, a French EVS volunteer and today I am going to write my last testimonial: Letter to future volunteers.

I don’t really know how to put it in sentences but you have to know that volunteering is a chance to help yourself before helping others. Why? Because when you start your volunteering service in a new country you have a chance to be who you want, nobody knows you. You can change, be the person that you really want to be. To be someone better or someone more tolerant about life and diversities in general. It is also important to come and let the others know all the aspects of your personality, your culture, experiences from your life. This will help you to adapt and to change in a pure way. You don’t have to lie, you don’t have to tell fairy stories, you just have to be who you are and enjoy it from the beginning to the very end. 100 % sure that the people you’ll meet during volunteering will change you. Because they are from different countries, different places and because they grew up in a different way than yours. You will face many situations that will force you to change your way of behaving or your way of thinking no matter where you come from.

EVS is also something that belongs to you and only you. Your coordinators are here to facilitate your work, to help you in many ways, but they are not here to tell you how to live your EVS experience. It is something that belongs to you, literally. You will decide if you will or not enjoy it, finish it, learn from it and so on. So my advices are, choose a EVS which represents you, which helps you to find your identity while doing something useful for the others. Choose an EVS because you deeply think that is something which is going to add a special thing to your life. EVS is definitely going to change you, your opinion, your tolerance, your mind, your way of thinking, it’s a great adventure. So please, decide what kind of adventure you want to live. Because that might be your only chance to travel in a specific country. I know that until now I’ve been writing in a funny way so perhaps it’s boring to read me now but understand it…

this EVS changed my life, and maybe it can change yours too, so don’t waste your chance, if you can go, just go.

Life is a long adventure, but EVS was a once in a lifetime chance.

Thanks for everything! Enjoy your future EVS! La revedere!

Baptiste Venegas (France) is hosted in Baia Mare by Team for Youth Association, in the “Life Skills for Rural Education” project, an European Voluntary Service financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus Plus Program.