Slovenian girl POV
Hi! I’m Saša, and I’m 23 years old. In February 2022 I decided to spend more time on myself to explore what I like to do. Besides my full-time studies at the Faculty of Administration and my student work, I wanted to invest my remaining time in something that would take my mind away from the stress. That was when i found out about volunteering opportunities around me.
Thus began my journey of cooperation with the Trbovlje Youth and Sports Institute. They needed participants for a local exchange in March 2022. I applied for it and later took part. As it was on the topic of mental health and I was totally down with mine, there could not have been a better start in that direction.
I myself took part in a one-month ESC exchange in Spain in July 2022. It changed my world view. I learned to be more independent, conscientious, obedient. At the same time my self-confidence and self-esteem increased. They say that sometimes you have to step out of your box to make a drastic change.
The year has passed and I continued to learn and experience working with youth. I had different opportunities but had to focus on studies more. While writing my Bachleor’s degree I applied for a long-term ESC program in Thessaloniki, Greece at Balkan Hotspot. Luckily I got accepted to do the program, which takes 6 months. Mentally you have a lot of preparing to do. You take into consideration that you’re leaving everything and everyone behind to follow your dream of learning something new and get experience in new fields of work.
The first impression i got was that everyone works very hard to achive perfection and accuracy. As a person who likes to work hard and stays organised, i saw it as a perfect opportunity to get out the creative side of my life as for so long it has only been management and economics.
So far, the voluntary work I applied to in Balkan Hotspot has been great. We’ve been learning about how to take care of social media and get reckognised on the internet. Also how to manage blog posts and magazine articles and make connections all over the place. The point of me contributing in this field of work is to teach myself how to take part and advantage in media field.
As for anyone who is interested in participating in Erasmus+ activities and ESC options, I would recommend that you do it and do it while you’re still in your twenties. Many have little to no knowledge about all the different volunteering opportunities you have, such as weekly Erasmus+ projects, short-term and long-term voluntaring programs, solidarity projects and much more.
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