Members experciences: Ellen!
¡Hola gente de AEGEE! (Hello AEGEE people!)As a kid, living abroad was something I never imagined I would ever do. But just likebelieving in Sinterklaas, some things change as you grow up. Because in the last six months,I did live abroad and proved myself wrong. Something that seemed unimaginably scary in thebeginning, is now something I am looking back on with gratitude and happiness. Let me takeyou back to the beginning, when it all started thanks to the inspiring experiences I had duringmy time in AEGEE. Because honestly, without them I’m not sure I would have dared to takethis big leap. During my years in AEGEE, I began to love traveling. Among others the amazing excursionsand hitchhike trips I’ve joined in these years made me realize there is so much more to seein the world than only the place we live and grow up in. And I can hear you thinking, “Nothinggoes above Groningen!” True, but that’s why I decided to move south—to Barcelona, to beprecise. With shaky knees and nerves on edge, I landed at the airport of Barcelona. I was going to bepicked up by a Spanish family. A family with whom I only had a video call twice and withwhom I was going to live for the next 6 months. The first thing they said to me? ‘Wow, you’revery tall!’. It was a strange comment but it made me laugh. It broke the ice and soon after, Igot the biggest hugs from two happy little girls who run up to me. I was the au pair of these two girls and I became a real member of their family. In the first fewmonths it was a challenge to adapt to their routines and lifestyle, which is completely differentfrom the Dutch one. The Spanish ‘mañana, mañana’ (tomorrow, tomorrow) mindset was a bigadjustment for me. From one day to the next, my whole life was completely different. In thebeginning I also hadn’t made any friends yet. So yes, there were times I really thought, ‘whatthe hell am I doing here?’. But this feeling, although with ups and downs, gradually fadedaway. And before I knew it, my days were filled with fun activities with the family, trips and gettogethers with new friends. As my life there began to take shape, I truly started to feel athome. It was the diversity of people I met that made my stay there so special. It was reallyinteresting to speak with people who had a completely different life than, for example, the lifein the Netherlands. Five years ago, I never would’ve imagined to become close friends withpeople from literally all over the world (there were a lot of Erasmus students there). It wasfunny to see that besides all the different backgrounds we had, we still created a group offriends that connected really well. So besides the fact that yes, it was sometimes difficult to be far from home and being waaayyout of my comfort zone, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world. I learned a lot and gotso much inspiration from my stay, it is something I will always be grateful for. But also nowback in Groningen I can really appreciate my life here more, because I’ve been away for awhile. Living abroad in whatever way or form, is something I would recommend to everyone. Lastly, I can’t forget to mention the power of the AEGEE community. As a friendless newbiein Barcelona, I contacted AEGEE-Barcelona, who had an activity planned, and I asked if Icould join. This led to meeting another group of amazing people, joining their kind of SUevent where I met even more people. This eventually contributed to my summer plans to goto Sziget in Budapest to meet with a few of them again. Besides that, it gave me theinspiration to join a real SU this summer, which I will combine with a solo trip of a monththrough Italy. That is perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned—let the butterfly effectwork for you. Create your own opportunities and say yes to new experiences. You neverknow where they might lead.
NL