From 10 to 14th of September, I participated in the Mid-term meeting, which took place in Tynec. With all the new things that I am learning during these months as an EVS, participated in the project in Serbia and the Annual Meeting of the network in Latvia, the excitement of living in a new country and trying to get familiar with the culture, with the city, making new friends, somehow I lost track of time.

When I arrived in Tynec, the first evening at the bonfire, where we were sharing our stories as EVS, I realized what I already knew, that time is running so fast and I am already on half of my journey as an EVS.
In the meeting we talked about the mini-project ideas, and well, most of us had no idea how that would look like, but what's important is that there is a strong desire to do something.

If there is a reason why I chose to do an EVS was exactly because I had a lot of questions in my mind: where am I going to go after my Bachelor studies? What will my Master degree be about?..

I am already in half of my experience, and I still cannot answer these questions. The experience is enriching and I am doing something which makes me feel good and offer something to the society even if it might be only a small contribution.

You know the most common question EVS ask to each other is: - "What are you going to do after your EVS?"
And from the several answers I heard to this question, I understood that it's not only me, but most of the young people around me are confused and don't know what their next step is going to be.

And you know what? That's perfectly fine, I wonder why do I bother asking this question so many times to myself?! I am always a person led by inspiration, I am not a huge planner, actually the idea of having things settled for the future is strange to me. I cannot even book a ticket for a concert which is three months away, I am more of a very spontaneous person. Otherwise having all these questions makes life more interesting as well, right?! Can you imagine a life when you have all the answers? I can't, it must be very boring.

I know that the flow of these questions comes from the society we live in, where everything has to be structured even the free time, because there is no time to lose time, and in the end you spend more time planning how to spend the free time rather just enjoying the time itself. Well, or it might be just the fact that being young is a stage of big changes and decisions that shape our lives. The times that we live in are very fast.

But I have made my huge discovery, the fact that every day we make small choices and take decisions, which lead us to the answers which we are so eagerly searching for. The best thing to do is to be present every day in our lives. I started the article with the idea of writing for the mid-term meeting, but my philosophical spirit took over somewhere on the way. To return to the mid-term, the highlight of that meeting for me was a 15km walk in the nature. We stopped at the ruins of a castle on the way as well, where we were supposed to fill in a list with the 101 things we want to do during our EVS. Of course I didn't fill in the list (hard to go by the list for me).

What I did is walk the longest distance I had ever walked barefoot in the forest before. The sense of wonder and freedom, you get from walking barefoot is amazing. This walk in the forest is one of the most memorable journeys so far during my EVS. Let's see what the next six months will bring!

Kristina