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.

This part of my life is called Italy

Sopio

My name is Sopio, and I’m from a faraway land: Georgia. I often have to explain where my country is located and what a long-dated cultural background it has. During my lifetime I’ve experienced many exciting and interesting adventures, but to be honest, I had never imagined to be thrown to Italy at the beginning of my 25th birthday. Especially not in such a small and peaceful city like Viterbo. Where streets are named after famous composers such as Puccini, Rossini, Vivaldi and Donizetti, you see beautiful flowers hanging from each balcony, and smell the air full of coffee and happiness.

You may wonder why I decided to leave my homeland, my “comfort zone” for living one year in a country still unfamiliar and strange for me. Well, there are several reasons. First of all, since I remember, I was always attracted by the idea of the “seeker hero”. The one who is searching for the meaning of life and for the personal identity. One of the first Georgian folk tales that my mom used to read me when I was very small was about a guy who left his family to discover the universe, as well as himself. Then I remember sitting in the second floor of my old house, in a village of east Georgia, reading a lot of books about travelling, while everyone else having fun outside. 🙂 I always thought that life was something more than that I used to see in front of my eyes. Moreover, it was my “personal responsibility” to explore those little magic things around the world and inside myself. But my “odysseys” were always so inner, like I was travelling but without leaving home. So I decided, it was time to challenge myself for something real.

“I read somewhere… how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong… to measure yourself at least once.” Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

It has been already four months that I’m living and working here, in Italy as a volunteer of Alicenova, and I can say that I have discovered more than I expected. I live with 5 other volunteers from such different countries as Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, Palestine and Portugal. We all have absolutely different personalities and languages. Sometimes it’s very complicated to find the proper words to express how we feel because of the language differences. However, we know the most important “universal human language”, the language of emotions, which can be understood even without spoken words. 🙂

We have several activities as EVS volunteers such as working in the farm with people with some disabilities. All of them have different problems, mental and physical conditions. It is strange. But when I’m in that environment, I do not feel like a stranger. On the contrary, my feeling is that I am one of them. I know it is selfish, but with their help I help myself too.

By the way, I started learning Italian language. It is not exaggeration to say that I’m addicted to this process, not only because of the communication, but also for the reason that there are very few such beautiful things in the world like Italian language. I like the feeling that when you are learning a new language you have to find and create yourself from your very basic roots. Sometimes I feel very helpless, but people always smile to me and understand what I’m trying to say.

One of the most pleasant part of the project is that we also have free time for traveling around and outside Italy. During these 4 months, I’ve visited such wonderful cities as Rome, Naples, Milan and several small towns in the region of Lazio. I remember my shock and speechless state when I first visited Rome “the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning”. And I’m so happy that last month my greatest wish came true, I went to Sigur Ros’s, my favorite band’s concert. It is extremely difficult to put in words what I felt in the moment when I was listening to their live show.

Finally, I can say that I’m sure this will be the one year which will have a fundamental effect on creating and shaping not only my present but also my future. It’s a process of endless discoveries and gains. Some days we’re happy, some days we feel pain but the most important is that we always learn something new.

“I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland