Valeria is an Italian volunteer in Praxis organization, writing her own experience about the project.
2023
Accomplishing a volunteering period abroad is something I recommend everybody to do at least one time in their life. It is a challenging experience that mutated myself and my view of life. For sure it can be scaring to go abroad without knowing anyone and without having idea of how the following months are going to look like. However, volunteering abroad was one of the best choice of my life, and it made possible, for summer 2021, to be special and unforgettable. For sure, if I had decided to spend this summer in my hometown I would have missed the chance to get to know myself and world around me a bit better. I would have missed so many good things; I would not have the chance to discover Greece and its amazing culture and people, I would not have learnt many new things, I would not have met a lot of special people. All the people I met have been really inspiring and taught me something. With some of them, and I am talking especially about the amazing team of volunteers that shared the journey with me, I was able to create real deep connections. They have been the people I spent 24 hours a day with, since they have been my flatmates, colleagues, friends and adventures companions. Volunteering allowed me to improve the skills I already had, to acquire new ones, to express my creativity and to get out of my comfort zone. This helped me to get to know myself better in many ways. First of all, I became more aware of my strong points and of my weakness. Since no one is perfect, thus everyone has strengths and weakness, all of us volunteers were cooperating and balancing each other. In this sense, the volunteering period represented for me the perfect occasion to work on my weak points. But there’s more; volunteering helped me, while gaining working experience, to understand which activities I like and fit my interests, thus I feel I am more aware about who I want to be and what I want to do in my future. But going volunteering is not just working! For sure volunteering activities take time, but on the other side there’s a lot of free time that is possible to spend in many ways. First of all, nothing better than exploring Greece, starting from the small but incredible city of Serres, the city of bougatsa! Serres is a welcoming city and the locals, with their hospitality, made me immediately feel at home! However, all the country, with its landscape and colors, with its history and fascinating touristic attractions, deserves to be discovered, lived and enjoyed. Last but not least, exploring the neighboring countries has been an excellent way of spending the week-ends and the holidays. For sure I have lived amazing moments, learnt and had fun at the same time, and collected a lot of nice stories to tell! To conclude I just want to say that volunteering opened my eyes and made me a better person. We all grow up in an individualistic society that tell us to look only at our profit, to don’t trust anyone and to don’t expect anything from people because they are guided only by their personal interest. The society tell us that we are matured once we can count only on ourselves and once we are closed enough towards other people in order to no be disappointed. Well, although in this world selfish people exist, is true also that the world is full of selfless and generous people. During my volunteer I rediscovered the pleasure of opening myself towards people, the pleasure of asking a favor without people expecting something in exchange from me, and the pleasure of giving only for purposes related to the best of the person who was receiving. This is the reason why, despite my volunteering is over, this experience is going to stay in my heart and in my mind forever and the reason why I will always be grateful to all the people who made the difference impacting not only in the two months I spent in Greece, but in my general approach to life. VALERIA CANGELOSI
Valeria is an Italian volunteer in Praxis organization, writing her own experience about the project. |
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November 2023
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