Everyone has dreams, especially when you are a young person you think a lot about your future, make your goals and very naturally you start dreaming about amazing future plans. Would you like to live independently? Would you like to start making your dreams and goals come true? Would you like to widen your minds, meet new people, travel to wonderful countries, experiencing adventures, finding what you want or just what makes you happy? Then here you are – BE A VOLUNTEER. Everyone can try it and get something valuable from this experience. 

It was a cloudy evening last spring, I was just scrolling through TikTok and drinking coffee. At the same time, I realized that I needed something unlike my everyday routine and work, I was thinking about my goals and dreams. I have already had some experience, skills and nice life-memories but I was desiring more and more. That was the impulse for me to start looking for ESC project.

Being a volunteer abroad may look challenging for you, in the beginning it was the same for me too. If you want to follow your dreamy goals you need to go out of your comfort zone and try new things. Aaaaaand YES! – volunteering will definitely be a new experience for you. You can get not only personal growth, but also professional development and a huge opportunity to make your and others’ life valuable as well. You can reach self-development, gain useful skills and bring your strengths, ideas and experiences to your volunteering work too.

Maybe while you are reading this blog now, you are thinking how it is possible to gain all of the above-mentioned benefits but just look at these possibilities – you will get used to living independently, face the challenges and make them positive for you, meet new people from diverse backgrounds, if you love travelling you can explore new cities and even countries too, cool chances to find amazing adventures, trying new things at your work and improve the skills that you already have… So, it sounds really nice, right? All of it is part of volunteering, maybe everything mentioned is not applealing for you but you have the opportunity to try and see what truly works for you.

From my experience I can tell you that ESC volunteering is the period when you can find your real self, explore your real ego, will, desires, goals and dreams and it is the perfect time to catch it and follow your path. 

Wait, wait, still thinking?! Come on! Search European Solidarity Corps and become a volunteer. Step up to magical adventures. Keep in your mind that sometimes you may miss your friends, maybe family, your work or school – your past and home, yes. Sometimes I miss it but I always try to keep myself focused on the present and where I am at this moment. Enjoying my life, living a cool life, getting as much as many benefits from my volunteering time.

For example, I already met other volunteers from different countries and made new friends. That is really good because those are your type of people whom you like spending time with and having fun. I have already learned quite many things at my "work" (informal club for kids) – one of the funny things is that now I know how to play billiard, how to make dream-catchers and how to use visual expression when we play board games in Slovak 😊 but of course I have already grew personally on different levels. One of my goals was to socialize more and I can say that I am more social person now and I am getting better and better in communication. Also, I already realized very well that when I have a hard time, facing some challenges, I should consider it only as a phase and I can just go through it while further following my goals and dreams. Sometimes I think it would be great if I tried volunteering 5-6 years earlier. However, actually it does not really matter because I truly believe that things happen at a time when they are suppossed to happen for everyone, when it is the proper time to experience them. So, if you are reading this now maybe it is the right time for you to apply for volunteering. Hmmm? Have you already started packing your stuff?! Great! Amazing times are ahead! 

Text a fotka: Zurabi Sanadze

Zura je dobrovoľníkom programu Európskej komisie Európsky zbor solidarity na dobrovoľníckom projekte v organizácii Mládež ulice pod koordináciou Bratislavského dobrovoľníckeho centra. Projekt bol podporený z programu Európsky zbor solidarity.