Volunteering Stories: Am I in my place ? – by Thomas

I arrived in Romania on the 14th of May. I came with a big desire to change my life. By chance I had with me very nice coordinator and some fantastic volunteers.

This departure I waited it impatiently, I left my work in which I didn’t feel good.  To be honest the thing that I want the most for the end of this EVS is to know what I want to do. I had  enough going around in circles. In this testimonial I would like to share with you the doubts that I met in this beginning in Romania.

It is clear,  my wish for when I go back to France is to be more confident, with more skills but especially being more enterprising then I am today. I want to stop having this impression of living a life by default , I speak about my life in France. I would really like to change my perception of life and stop being passive.

To be honest, my project it’s difficult for me , working with children is not easy. I’m not comfortable. I have the impression that I don’t have authority or I don’t know a lot of games, but that’s the challenge.

In addition,  my project requests doing creative activity like paint, draw etc… I always fled this kind of activities. I remember a moment of my elementary school when a teacher kept me during the recreation because I didn’t draw good enough the map.

Those last weeks I understood of this project will be for me to be lot of things of which I am not. It is not difficult to be involved in one of the things  that I’ve always ran away from? Yes it is!

After  a bit of time passed, when I was thinking that the project is not compatible with me, I understood that the reality was the opposite. This project will help me develop my creativity, being something that I miss for being more enterprising . Getting  out of my comfort zone with children , it’s something that makes my mind find solutions in difficult situation and make progress. We always look for ways to remain in our comfort zone, but a life without challenge is a good life?

I’m happy here! I am happy about my flat mates and about the people with whom I work in the association. Team for Youth Association and the local volunteers are just great. I’m very happy to about the challenges that my project gives me.

I really want to enjoy what Romania can give me. The environment change is very brutal when you go alone in a different country, but for me it was a very nice experience. Our environment plays a very important role in our life and when we change it we discover a new self. EVS it’s the perfect opportunity  to learn about yourself. We can start to like what we didn’t like before, or don’t appreciate what you were admiring before, so, sometimes it’s a surprise.

I spoke a lot of about what this EVS can bring to me, but is very important also to give a lot!! This is the only way for me to be really proud of my EVS stage. I would like to bring new experiences for the people that I work with. This volunteering is the opportunity to undertake something of what I didn’t feel capable before EVS.

I will end my testimonial with a representative phrase.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Thomas is a French volunteer and she takes part in the “SEV 4×4” project which is an European Voluntary Service financed by the European Commission through Erasmus Plus program.  The content of this article does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the article lies entirely with the author.
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