Getting Involved in the EVS Challenge (experience and definitions)
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…I never really felt alone. At the time there was a fellow Macedonian volunteer who introduced me into the volunteers’ community. I met a hoard of experienced (and less experienced) volunteers who were going through the same I was. I had plenty of people I felt I could talk to whenever I needed advice.
People are curious, contradictory beings that avoid definitions. I have always found definitions rather dull… and finite. We are all aware that to live is to change. I might have been obsessing over the idea of enrolling in art school in my early teenage years, but my first lesson of Italian in the senior year of high school brought a sudden change of heart. My fascination with languages has been growing (and altering) ever since. If I had to list my major fields of interest, language would be one of them. It carries limitless power. Words glorify and sacralize. Often, however, they corrupt and destruct. The Great Goe is famous for saying that having no knowledge in foreign languages is having no knowledge of your own, statement I strongly uphold. Language is fascinating in its power of binding us all, or, likewise, separating us.
Previous knowledge about EVS
Tidbits about the European voluntary service first reached me at a Portuguese language and culture workshop held at a Skopje youth organization. The idea enraptured me. Having just graduated from university and having dedicated most of my time to job hunting, I had some amount of time to spare so I did a brief research. Soon after, I got distracted having gotten immersed into translation.
My short-term EVS project was sort of a happy accident. A volunteer-to-be had given up their short-term project so I contacted my sending organization online and applied. The next day they told me I am flying to the Estonian metropolis in three weeks.
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