Final blog of Santi!

16 Zář Final blog of Santi!

One year, full of experiences! International cooperation, cultural exchanges, workshops. Leading activities, developing programs, promoting the organization. Creating social media materials. Teaching English, or teaching my mother tongue language for local people in Slaný. Just some of the activities I have been working with during this whole year. Nowadays, I consider them the main engine that made possible a big growth in my personal development. I found new ways in my professional direction. Discovering new technics of cooperation, working with international people, working with and for the local community in this small town. Czech society really involved me. I had the opportunity to learn Czech thanks to my organization, and now I am able to have basic conversations in shops, public spaces and events.

I arrived to this country being really lost in my personal and professional growth. I came here trying to find something new, something that could make me decide by myself new opportunities, passions, and talents hided in me. Thanks to my team, and partner Giulio, from Sardinia, my expectative was further achieved. I started in some way a new life here, going really into my volunteering project. I brought only my attitude and good vibes for it. Strength to work and imagination to create new projects. And it was more than enough. Now, I am planning to come back here to live next year. The organization offered me to work for the inclusion of the new volunteers, to share and teach them all goals and soft skills I achieved this year. After a year of development in a different environment, I have almost forgotten my past life in Alzira, Valencia. Where I was studying arquitecture. A path totally different
from the one I am following now. From that career, I changed to be really interested in working with Youth. In all this atmosphere of leading activities, and creation of programs, opening eyes and minds to the youngest society. Bringing topics to the schools like authenticity, self-awareness, temperaments, tolerance, and equality.
I always missed in my underage time, lessons in my high school about understanding oneself, about how to find our passions and how to work to achieve them, in how to study! In my opinion, we are forgetting to bring to the Youth all this spectrum of topics
and self-awareness. We cannot find it in subjects like maths, languages, physics, philosophy, or history. I am not saying I disagree with all these subjects. I think they are also really important for us, to discover what we like the most, studying a bit of everything. But what about our uniqueness, what about knowing ourselves deeply, what about learning in how to work together, in how to respect our partners, in how to understand others in the same way we understand our personal behaviour and interests.
Now it opens to me a world where to bring a mission to arrive to the lost kids, which
this society don’t offer them sometimes the personal paths of development they need
to understand, think, and go through. This year I have understood that the loss of your personal side development is not for laziness, or for kids whom don’t want to learn anything. Leaving school when they are yet really young. Nowadays I believe that it is just a lack of interest. For not finding in the learning system of this society what they
really would love to do, to explode, to study, to understand themselves. Far away to be able to discover by their own hand. Due to bad familiar situations, due to not having enough sensitive teachers that appreciate what some youth try to show, or create. All of us have our unique way of observing and perceiving the world. And some of them have it so unique that others around are not able to understand or feel in the same way. Leaving them outside from the normal line of behaviour, making them feel
misunderstood in the world.

I only wanted to bring this reflection, because it is something I have been able to feel
this year working with them. Reflecting in the same way about my own path, and
about understanding my own way, which brought me to this point. How incredible can be life, when in it you find something that touches you, and makes you understand things that you have always been living, but you were never able to realize deeply.
For that, I motivate everyone who is feeling something missing in their life, to risk their comfortable zone. To push it and go far away, or start a new path finding new opportunities, to find a new knowledge or perspective about life. About ourselves. To
travel and discover us in totally different atmospheres of thinking. If we feel lost.
What is life if we keep being comfortable with given things, with the normal affair
path? We can find so much more than what we find in our own bubble. And we only
live once for it.

I thank to European Solidarity Corps, to IDEA Alzira (my sending organization), and ICM Slaný (my host organization) for giving me this opportunity to travel and live one year abroad. In a complete new environment. I am really grateful for it. It was a big step they helped me to make, and without it I would be a different person now. Or the same one, but just without a big personal development to focus in what I really love to do and discover. If you are reading this, and you would like to change things in your life, it is always a good opportunity to reflect in yourself, to jump to the unknown, and discover the meaning of life by your own steps. Not be afraid.

To jump, it is only question of one second decision. Then, you are already falling into the new world in front of you. Let it involve you, and let yourself conform your own reality on it. We should find happiness, far away from crisis, depression, and misunderstanding. Topics which nowadays, so many Youth are going through, finding difficult to change them. Being changed for them.
Just jump!

Santi 15/09/2020