An exciting journey comes to an end Blog
Ciao per un’ultima volta!
Slowly but surely, my volunteering experience in Italy is coming to an end. After almost ten months, I can look back on a journey that was often beautiful, sometimes difficult, but always taught me something. On the one hand, time really flew by; on the other hand, last September feels like it was ages ago.
My volunteering journey wasn’t a straight path, but rather felt like many short episodes. At times, I was working mostly in the office, at others more in various social facilities of Caritas, and sometimes exclusively in summer camps for kids. Some periods were really slow, others extremely busy. In winter, I was living and working close to the snowy mountains of Alto Adige; now, I get to spend lots of time on the sunny Adriatic coast. Lots of exciting change, but barely any time to settle.
One of the most beautiful aspects of this experience was definitely meeting many, many people – other volunteers, colleagues, clients, and locals – and making friends whom I will definitely stay in contact with. Many of these encounters helped me to grow, feel at home, or challenged me.
In the last months, I developed a lot as a person: I became more independent, more self-confident, more sure of my opinions, abilities, and weaknesses. I also improved my Italian and my social skills a lot. But still, I have a lot to figure out about how I want to lead my life. I came to Italy expecting to leave with an exact plan for the future. Now I have to accept that I’m still uncertain in some aspects. But uncertainties about the future are a part of life.
All in all, I’m very, very happy about my decision to do this volunteering project and would definitely recommend doing an ESC project to anyone who is interested. I am incredibly grateful for all the learning opportunities, travels, funny moments, obstacles I’ve overcome, people I could help, and – most importantly – friendships.
Grazie mille, Italia! Dankeschön, Bozen! Mi mancherai
Un caro saluto
Nora
