Hello everyone,
Welcome back for a new article. As I already said, I’m about to finish my project here so during the last week, I thought a lot about my future and what my volunteering brought me. So I decided to read all my articles I did for the organization’s blog to understand better how, what and why I improved.
I remember when I wrote my first article, first I had to use google translation a lot because my english was not that good and also I was not confident so I had to check everything. I also remember that I was sure that by doing this volunteering project I would find my vocation and something for my future. But almost at the end of the project, I grew a lot but I’m still confused about my future.
Step by step, reading my previous articles, I realize the path I have taken, I feel my emotions for the second time, and I understand things about my evolution. For example, I read my articles on the workshops and now I understand how it affected me. Of course, it developed my empathy on the one hand and my confidence on the other. I, for example, wanted to challenge myself more after these experiences. Unfortunately, due to covid-19, the workshops at the school ended very quickly.
After all of that, we were in quarantine because of Covid-19. This period was very difficult because I kind of lost my motivation for the job. However, I have tried so hard to have new goals, objectives and activities. In a way, this quarantine will have taught me to adapt and see the positive.
I have also, during all these months, improved my vision of sharing. I understood that sharing can take many forms and that in any case it really helps a lot. For example, if someone shares their experience, it can help shape yourself and your opinion. With it, you can change the way you think and do things in general.
After all, after the quarantine and after the issues encountered in my project, I kind of debriefed on what this project brought me. I remember, at that moment, I was already wondering a lot. On my future, on what I have improved here, on others, …But of course I was really not the same, I realized at the beginning that I was in a much more confident way and also really more mature.
In this project, I discovered a lot about myself and about others. In fact, what I liked the most here was the multicultural aspect. I met people from all over the world. I know I already talked about it, but this is really something I loved here, in Portugal and mostly with this project. Polish, Jordanian, Turkish, Portuguese, Brazilian… They all brought me something and I’m really grateful for it. As a result, this experience taught me to always be open-minded and to listen more to all opinions. This multicultural aspect makes it possible to see new habits, a new state of mind and to see the bigger world.
I also think that by meeting new people, I got more involved in causes that are close to my heart. But also because in recent months, there are many topics that have been highlighted such as racism, feminism, Islamophobia, grossophobia … I just realise by reading my lasts articles and by writing this one, that I changed a lot but also that I will never be the same again. I’m more involved, more mature, more confident. I really improved everything about me.
The last thing I know now, it’s that by volunteering I discovered a taste for travel. I know now that traveling will be a real part of my life. I want to discover new countries, new habits, new traditions, new state of mind, new people, new places… and that for all my life.
I feel so grateful and lucky to have had this experience. As with everything, there are always negative things but in the end I feel stronger and better than before. Overall, if I had the choice to change certain things, I would do exactly the same. The only thing I would change is that I would like to speak more Portuguese. But all the time that I didn’t spend studying, I spent it on other useful things too. A few more weeks and let’s see what life will bring me.
See you soon world!
