Dear reader,
I’m really happy that I can write a few words about the experience I had in Croatia, this autumn of 2016.
It is of huge importance to highlight that this project was my first touch with a Youth Training course, ever. To be honest, initially I have never heard about such projects and I was a bit skeptical about the outcome. However, I decided to give it a try and since the first day of that wonderful trip I realized how much I might learn and experience in that short period of time. All of the people I met were great, smart and coming from different backgrounds which was very interesting and new for me.
The whole program was really easy to understand and follow which for that type of activity is hard to achieve. At the beginning everything was explained and we had the opportunity to choose with whom we want to talk to and to ask our questions. A part from that we had some nice coffee breaks because of the intensity of the course we didn’t have much time to rest during the day.
Another positive side for me was the chance to participate in different games and most of them were so entertaining and we had a great fun. My favorite was when we had to take some pictures outside the room and catch some specific moments and emotions of people and nature. It was very interesting to see everyone’s point of view on that task.
All of that digital storytelling process was so different from what I expected. It was kind of difficult to make a short movie in just a few days but I had the chance to work with two wonderful participants who helped me a lot and I think we had a great fun together. The main idea of this course was to learn how to tell stories using different tools and to know the best way of expressing our thoughts in front of a big audience as well as discussing different topics which helped me a lot with my communicating skills. In that short period of time I learned how to understand and to be more patient toward other people opinions of various topics and share my point of view with them. During the course I’ve learned new ways of presenting and expressing my emotions and thoughts. Personally I believe that communication is something very important in our everyday life so we need to know how to speak and share our ideas with others. Now I feel much more confident knowing that my voice can be heard as long as I know how to value it.
The most difficult part for me was when we had to plan a schedule and write down everything we need in order to shoot the movie and to present it in front of everybody.Personally I spoke a lot on the topics because I felt calm and relaxed in that environment. I learned so much about myself and the different countries and societies.
However, the best part of the project was the ending when we had to personally give the certificates to someone that got close during this time. It was so emotional.
I’m extremely grateful to all of the Y-E-N team because they were paying attention and helping to every single person and all of them had a great respect and positive energy the whole time.
Last but not least I would like to express my gratitude to Active Bulgarian Society, which is the Bulgarian partner of Y-E-N that helped me find this project and approved my application to make this happen.
I spent 10 wonderful and happy days in this beautiful city Groznjan (Croatia) and I’m looking forward for the next experience of that kind.
