My name is Tania, I am Ukrainian but the EU lockdown I spent in Switzerland due to personal reasons. I am like everyone else who believed that it’s just for a few weeks, but I spent 3 months in a completely new country and didn’t regret it. It was quite an experience with some issues and opportunities, and some people might say that it’s not the best time for going on exchange or volunteering abroad, but I would say that your youth is not paused. You still have so many opportunities to learn, to grow and develop yourself, and COVID-19 should not stop you from it! So here are the 5 things I learnt during this crisis:
1. Be patient. It’s a totally new concept for me as I am always planning everything in my life. Of course, it wasn’t possible during the quarantine, thus I realised that unfortunately, not everything is dependent on me, so my only option now is to be calm and patient.
2. Be grateful. I learnt to appreciate small things and people around me. There are so many amazing things which I usually took for granted. I hope I will keep this feeling even when life comes back to normal (if it will).
3. Be openminded. Even if you didn’t expect something, didn’t want it or don’t need it now, stay open to any new things, people or experience. If it happens with you, probably it should happen like this. That’s how I accidentally decided to start learning web-design, because why not?
4. Be flexible. I am sure that this skill will be extremely valuable in the nearest future, as now we know how important it is to be able to adapt fast to different situations. So try to achieve your goals in the other way, I am sure you never thought about how many ways of learning there are outside!
5. Be proactive. Only you are responsible for yourself and which person you will become after experiencing this type of situation. So be active in taking responsibility in your life, initiate online-projects, call your friends first, help people around if you have a possibility.
And last but not least, be a human being! No one taught us how to behave in such a stressful situation, so keep respecting people around. And remember that in the small steps we are making big changes! Good luck!
