Maris and her EVS
This whole journey has been everything I never expected it to be. It has been an adventure for sure. Adventure of a lifetime.
If someone would have asked me if I ever imagined that I will be living in Greece and call it my home, my answer would have been no. But yet here I am and Greece is my home.
How can I describe my seven months in Greece so far? Exciting, developing, eye-opening, experimental, full of adventures and discoveries, challenging would be first words that come to my mind.
Our EVS experience is totally in our hands. Our organisation has kindly given us tools to use and create project on our own, which of course can be challenging at first when we just get to know the new country and work environment and people around us, but once getting a hang of everything, gives many opportunities. For me one of those opportunities is to make my own live radio broadcasts at Rodon FM 95. I remember how before arriving to Greece was my biggest fears. How me - Maris, am able to speak in the radio. I had thousands of questions in my mind and repeated to myself that no, I am not going to do it. But here I am, seven months later trying to make as many live broadcasts as possible. Slowly but steadily moving towards my 100 broadcasts goal.
Steve Jobs has said that the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. This is the reason why I am here, spending my 9 months here, trying out different things, developing myself and mastering my skills. I believe that everything we do adds up and is beneficial for our future. It’s important to keep moving forward and finding in what we are best at. But if we don’t try, we will never know.
And for me this is the beauty of this kind of projects. This open mindset or optimistic belief that you can do anything if you only want to. It might be scary in the beginning, but you have this safe environment around you to try and learn. And most importantly you have around you like minded young people, who are motivating and supporting you in work and everyday life. Within last 7 months in Greece I have met so many wonderful people from all over the world. People who’s stories have taught me so much about myself, about other cultures… Well, pretty much how life works in general. We are now world citizens with wider world view and perhaps little more open mindset.
Being an EVS volunteer in another country and dedicating 9 months of your life to do something meaningful in local community. The thing is you never know what the impact of your activities might be. It might be something really small, but still make someone elses life better. You can say I am a big believer that every person can make a difference in the world and that small acts matter. Our work here with the youth who take part of our activities in PRAXIS Greece Youth Info-Center or at Rodon FM 95 is important and we try to give our best. But most importantly enjoy. Enjoy the experience, enjoy the time with our friends, enjoy our time in Greece.
Is EVS experience worth it? Definetly. I wouldn’t change it for anything And yes, go for an EVS while you still can and create memories that you can share with your family, friends, everybody how awesome life can be.
Stay humble!
Maris