LIFE Choice

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”
Keri Russell

My name is Rana Ramadan. I am a twenty-four year old Palestinian girl. I graduated from University in the year of 2016 with a bachelor degree in Materials Engineering. Right now, I am one of six girls (which you all know by now) that are participating in an EVS program.

Rana

To spend a year, far away from your family and friends, to leave your daily life, pack your bags and just go to a different country to live, this is what I call a life changing choice.

What drove me to take part in this program is different than the other girls’ motivation. For me this was a first step in my future career. It was the thing that I wanted for the rest of my life, to work with disability, to be part of this magnificent world. I remember the day I saw the program invitation on the sending organization’s web page. The deadline was already passed, but there was something that drove me to send an email to see if I can still submit my papers. I was really happy when I received that I can send the documents despite that they were already in the interview step. Anyway I sent them and after three days I received an invitation for an interview. To be honest my hopes where not that high, but I did my best, and here I am. Six months after this interview and a choice that changed my plans, my perspectives, my dreams and my whole life, I am sitting in the living room of our apartment, near the city center of Viterbo, writing to you about my experience.

EVS started for me as a way to open a new door for my future in a career point of view, but after four months I end up to see different things in life. I met five girls from five different countries, backgrounds, mentality. We had our ups and downs, we laughed and cried. The amount of new things that we experienced in this small period of time makes me think about how much we can learn from each other’s life stories, how much we can help each other by a small word, a hug or even a smile.
EVS is not only a time that you will spend doing a specific activity that was written in your agreement. It is a decision that changes your life in a way that you never imagined it can be. It is a chance to see the world in the eyes of other people; to understand other cultures, lives, believes, and to make new friends. This is not a step that you need to think much about. It is something that all of us need in order to grow up, to know ourselves, to build our personality, and to be humans towards each other without a previous judgment. It is amazing just to wake up in the morning, knowing that today there is something new that you will know about yourself or others around you.  This experience so far taught me one of the most important things about myself. It taught me that sometimes the change you need is just behind the corner but you need to open your eyes to see it. EVS was this change.
So, if there is something I want to add before saying goodbye is that be your own change, work hard to accomplish your dreams and never think, that the small things you are doing right now in your life doesn’t count, because in a couple of years, or maybe days, these choices will turn to be a life changer.