My personal development

First I have to say, to everyone that has the possibility to do EVS they should do it without thinking twice. It's an amazing experience both in personal terms or professional. 

The day I found out I was selected to be a part of this unique and fantastic project I was so happy, unfortunately I did not have a lot of support which made me doubt that everything would turn out the one I was thinking. But I still didn't gave up on my dream and here I am proving them wrong. 

Before going to Romania I had read a lot of testimonies and talked to a lot of people including my best friend that was doing EVS in Slovakia and they were saying that you can't explain the experience, you just live it. And it's true only the people who experience this can understand what EVS is. 

I can say that I'm fulfilling all of my goals so far and that, this experience is contributing a lot to my personal development, because so far I had the opportunity to know another culture first hand, a new language (even though for me it's a difficult language), different ways to work and think and meeting new people. I can also tell you that this country surprised me, the country is beautiful and the people are wonderful. It's not like the stories people used to tell me back in Portugal. But I still decided to go on this truly terrific adventure and decided to explore the unknown. 

For me it was really scary at first because I was leaving everything that I knew, my life would change a lot and I would change which terrified me a little bit, because I would have to leave my comfort zone. You know what made me feel proud and that made all the people that doubted me stop doubting me and start believing in me? The day I came here, after a whole day of travelling, catching two planes and waiting 8 hours alone in Barcelona I was still alive and didn't die ahah. I didn't panic, I was alright. 

It's impossible to put in words the anxiety I got when I knew I was coming here and the day I left my country, I remember crying a lot in the airport as I was saying goodbye to everything that I knew. Between documents and bureaucracies that seemed they would never end, my head was far away, thinking where would I live, how was the apartment, if I was going to understand the language and if my English was good enough so people could understand me, and most importantly if I was going to like my experience or just regret it. All of this at the same time counting the days that were left to live what would be the experience of a lifetime. 

About my personal change, I became more mature, responsible, independent and a little bit less shy since I got here. Being alone without my family and friends really impact me and made me a better person. Even though I miss them I don't regret coming here. And even though I had been in 9 different jobs I never had a work like this, so it was kind of a shock for me. 

Being responsible for my food and money was definitely something that was really hard for me at first, before coming here I didn't know how to cook or manage my money, even though I'm not where I want to be, I'm getting better. 

And I couldn't say goodbye (don't worry I'm not going anywhere, I'm just finishing my post) without saying if you're considering doing EVS don't think twice, just do it!