As I am typing this last report, I am already back home, in the land of cows and butter, apples and rain. Looking back at everything that happened, it feels like 12 months passed in a flash. What a year! It was a lot. A lot of wonderful people, a lot of marvellous trips, a lot of fun and not so fun experiences, a lot of stress, a lot of awaited impressions and unexpected discoveries, and a lot of heightened emotions, bad and good. It’s not that easy to write about such an experience.
I should maybe start with the past few months, from the end of June to the end of September.
Summer was busy with trips and relatives visiting. It was a whirlpool of excursions and outings; I spent a lot of time discovering new places and finding comfort in corners I was already familiar with. A truly exhausting summer, but in the best way possible. I also spent a week in Danmark with my workplace – during which I made unforgettable memories with the residents and my coworkers. Countless of my happiest memories of the ESC experience were made this summer.
The end of August and the whole length of September came and passed with mixed feelings, from the elation of the time spent with the people I love both at work and in my private time, to the sadness and melancholia of seeing other volunteers leaving Bremen – until it was suddenly my turn to say goodbye to the ones staying.
Leaving Freizi behind was especially hard, for I mourned relationships with the residents that will never be the same once the time has done its inexorable work, as well as a workplace where I had found my place among truly incredible colleagues. Even though it came with its inevitable set of challenges, the work in Freizi grew on me much more than I would ever have expected. I loved it with a passion that took me by surprise. I hope the tears that I shed on my last day were a testimony of how fond I had grown to this wonderful place.
I hope that life will allow me to return some days, and that the next volunteer will find just as much as I did there. This experience impacted me deeply, and I am proud and glad that I will carry these changes within me as a proof of our memorable moments together. I hope they will continue to make me a better person too.
I am grateful for the technologies that allow me to try to stay in contact with the many unexpected friends I made this year. My happiest moments were almost always with them; I wish them the best if keeping in touch turns out to be impossible.
And as much as I am elated to be back home, I admit that I’ll miss Bremen a little bit too, for its green corners and the places that I had made mine.
What I will definitely not miss are the flats in which I lived. I struggled the whole year with elements that made my life neither comfortable nor (in my opinion) decent. Having control and full agency again over my private space is definitely worth the heartache of leaving everything else.
If I were to take stock of my 12 months in Bremen, I would say that I definitely learned a lot about myself, Germany, many other cultures, and the fine art of making the most of my time while trying – sometimes failing – not to exhaust myself to the point of debilitation. I don’t have regrets, so it must have been a time well spent!
From this year, I’m taking a lot of things with me, from the warmth of people I spent time with, to the habit of looking at familiar things with a foreigner’s eye. I got older and my head got balder. I feel bone tired, but nonetheless refreshed and emboldened. And I feel ready for what comes next, as, after all, “Schlechten Menschen geht es immer gut”!
[Last update on the Deutsche Bahn: Was kinda bad till the very end. Will kinda miss it(?)]
Marine was hosted by NaturKultur on our project co-funded by the European Union.
If you want to experience something similar to what Marine did, check out our open calls here.
