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Arrivederci, Craiova

Chiara Ionta
Jul 25, 2018
2 min read

Arrivederci,

La revedere,

Goodbye.

Words with different 'dresses' and the same meaning.

Being here since November, during these nine months here I already had to say it to a lot of friends and volunteers, and now is almost my time to say goodbye to this Romanian city and come back to my small town in Italy.

I don't even know how to express all the things that I carry inside me in this moment, feelings that melt in each other, blend, they become so blurred that is hard to define them.

I'm happy to come back home, but I'm sad to leave.

I can't wait to be home sometimes, and the next day I just want to live here in Craiova forever.

Nine months.

It's both a short and a long time.

Is enough to build a life, but passes really fast.

I look behind me and I look at the street I wandered through, to the bridges I crossed and the paths I chose to follow.

I look at the mirror, and see the reflection of another girl. Of a woman.

This experience was so intense that words are not enough to describe it.

Working with the kids in A.N.C.A.A.R. and in schools and in the Library, organizing the activites for them, working on our events and our guide...all the time me and my teammates spent with them, all the energy we put into it, and all the mistakes that made us grow, and the small victories that brought us joy.

I could write rivers of words about it, but it would simply be impossible to convey to the reader the importance and wonder of my EVS experience.

I had good and bad moments, it wasn't always easy, above all for a shy and asocial person like me, but if I made it until the end, was thanks to the will of reaching our goals, and above all thanks to the support and love of all the people who surrounded me, other volunteers and members of the association and A.N.C.A.A.R. centre.

They've been my second family.

From them, I learnt that is not a shame to ask for help sometimes, and that together we can do better.

I also learnt that in this short, short life is not so important if you can't manage to achieve everything you want to, that sometimes is not possible, and that we should put happiness before success.

I really want to say thank you to all of them, because I'll cherish forever in my heart the precious moments we spent together, the travels and the evenings in which we just stayed home talking, our discussions, our craziness, like the time we decided to swim in the snow.

Best-decision-ever.

I have a tattoo on my shoulder.

I madeit in Craiova, coming back from a travel.

It's a fish with two heads.

"What does it mean?" people keep asking.

One head is my hometown, Segni: the things I have there, my family and my life.

The other, is Craiova, this EVS, the friends and the job.

I think I will be split into forever from now on, and constantly homesick, but I can say that I regret nothing of this experience.

Everyone should have the possibility of doing an EVS.

It makes you grow.

And it makes you happy.