Hi everyone!
My name is Gosia, I am 19 and I come from Gdynia in Poland. I really enjoy sports activities, watching series, playing the Sims 4 and board games with my family and friends. I played floorball for 12 years ( sport similar to hockey but on the pitch ). I was on the second year of IT studies. One day I decided to change something in my life. That’s why, now from 6 days, I have been in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
But from the beginning. How exactly the girl who has never lived or been abroad alone, end up at the other part of Europe? Well, few months ago I started to feel like maybe what I was doing wasn’t the best for me. I wasn’t very happy and the daily routine was beginning to tire me out. I started looking for opportunities to change something.
One of the ideas was to go abroad. I found the European Solidarity Corps page and I created my account there. I have always dreamed of going on an abroad volunteering but at that point I thought maybe I was too young and I didn’t have much qualifications. Back then I felt like I wasn’t ready and I decided to try to apply in a year or two.
However, about a month ago I received an email from the ESC that some foundation wanted to contact me. That’s when I learned about Smokinya Foundation and the one-year abroad volunteering project. I liked the opportunities, freedom, chance to develop and ability to gain many skills offered by them. Without any expectations, I applied for this. Surprisingly, I was accepted. In less than a month I was supposed to change my life 180 degrees. Despite this, I had no doubts – I knew I wanted to do this!
The last month was hard. I had to close and deal with a lot of different things. I had to announce to everyone that I would not be in Poland for at least a year. Goodbyes were the hardest part…
A lot of people asked me if I wasn’t afraid. Of course I was! And I still am. But life is something more than staying in comfort zone all the time. I want to live my life to the fullest, enjoy every moment and learn new things everyday.
This year, there’s gonna be many challenges, adventures and new experiences. There will be better and worse days. I will meet many people ( I have already met great ones ), become more confident person, improve my English and maybe learn Bulgarian or other things that now I cannot think about. But what I am sure now – this is gonna be a great year and one of the biggest adventures of my life!
