My European Solidarity Corps project here in Murcia, Spain started in October and will end in June. As I write this on April 15, I realize that I have only about two and a half months left. Time has really flown: I feel like it was yesterday when I arrived in Murcia for the first time.
And yet, in what appears to have been a blink of an eye, so much has happened. I came mainly thinking about my volunteer project and the opportunity to learn and practice Spanish. But now, looking back at these six months, the amount of experiences, memories, colors and emotions I have experienced feels enormous.
Even now, life here continues to offer me new and unique things. I still feel like I’m in the middle of a great exploration, and I think that’s precisely what makes this experience so fascinating for me.
Exploring, in itself, may seem like something done just for the sake of it. But for me, it’s much more than that. The more I explore, the more I learn about myself. It’s not always easy, of course; sometimes it’s challenging, even exhausting. But it’s also deeply rewarding. It’s funny, adventurous, sometimes scary, but it always makes a lot of sense.
I have realized that the more I explore the outside world, physically leaving home, getting closer to something or someone new, the more I feel like I’m also taking a journey inside myself. I get to know not only a new little part of the world, but also a new little part of myself. And that is something I will definitely take with me after this project.