My EVS experience transfomed my personality

When I was moving up the escalator through the terminal at the airport and waving to my father and sister who came to say goodbye at the airport in Skopje, Macedonia, I couldn't imagine that one year in the Netherlands will change my life from inside out. I strongly believed that my decision to accept the challenge to be an EVS volunteer in an organization that was functioning as a training center for non-formal education was the best decision I ever made and the best investment. Now when I can reflect everything that I learnt and the changes I experienced in my personal and professional development because I was determined to do it, I can only confirm that the experience as an EVS volunteer exceeded my expectations.

It is a real challenge for me to describe my EVS experience in only one page, and it is even more challenging to choose only one person who made my EVS special. Because I was blessed, supported and inspired from many people from different countries who were participants and trainers on the trainings for personal development, while my colleagues with whom I shared my EVS volunteering experience were my family in the Netherlands.

I reached my record of 50 kilometers ride by bike in one day. For that event I must thank Ili, my colleague from Romania, who took the initiative to ride on the highway from our home to the town Zwolle one sunny weekend day. Together with Ili I also experienced Couchsurfing in Eindhovenfor the first time.

Robert, one of my trainers on the training Practicing Coaching helped me to regain my self- confidence, to believe in my potential and to strive to be whatever I want to be. Robert was a huge support to me and I will always remember his sentence: Svetlana, you can make the oceans cry.

Andreas was my trainer on the youth exchange Spectrum and the training Choice, and he was the person who had huge impact on me in overcoming my fears and wrong beliefs. My wrong belief was that I couldn't express myself artistically by using movements of my body and my imagination in one activity done by over 50 young people in the sports hall in Ommen. Everybody was getting up slowly and participated in the activity several times, and I was glued on the floor, sitting and observing, not having the courage to make a move. My fears and insecurity were growing with every second, until the moment when Andreas came to me and said: You still have time to join. I started with my excuses saying that I can't make this in front of so many people, and besides that my director Marko was sitting on the bench and watching. Andreas both with a sharp and soft voice said:“This is the chance. You have two options: to use this opportunity or waste it”.

I don't know how I got the courage, but I stood up, not thinking about what and how to do it. My body was moving, I gave it the freedom to express itself by joining the other people around me. It was amazing. When I finished, I received a lot of compliments. The second time that Andreas was my trainer was at the training Choice. His support was enormous. Thanks to him I succeeded in confronting myself, a process that was not at all easy; to reach my inner peace, to realize that I love myself and my life, and most of all to throw off the mask of a strong person and let everyone see how vulnerable I am.

When I showed my vulnerability I became a new person; a person who knew that the change has already started. It was my time to change, and this time I was completely ready to go for it. Believe me; the process of changing your thoughts and belief programmes was not easy at all. What I experienced 2 months after Choice was a nightmare because I experienced how it was to live between life and death; but trust me it was worth it. I say it is worth it, because now I am saying that it is good to be me.