Stepping out of your comfort zone is always rewarding

In the summer of 2022, I had the opportunity to participate in an European Solidarity Corps (ESC) project in Galicia, Spain.

Through out the 2 months of living in Santiago de Compostela with other 5 volunteers (participants from Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania) we worked in various areas: from walking a small portion of the Camino de Santiago French way, interviewing piligrims and working in hostels to creating workshops in local youth and elderly centers, managing social media and many more. During the project, me and other volunteers faced many difficulties, but we would always find a way how to work them out. While living with people from different backgrounds, all of us had to stay flexible and learn how to communicate our needs, especially if someone left a dirty bowl in the sink or forgot to clean the shower after using it. Besides living together, sometimes even working and reaching both, our personal and group, goals would become challenging. Almost always we would have to find a compromise between many opinions and ideas. The most challenging part of the volunteering was probably the language barrier. Organizing activities for small children about recycling and not knowing Spanish was interesting, but we managed to create a wonderful learning experience for them and of course learn a lot of new words as a non-Spanish speaker!

Although flying across Europe to a totally new country alone might sound scary (and it sometimes is), but after all you learn many new things, have a broader perspective on the world, share and get new experience, but most importantly – you grow as a person. Stepping out of your comfort zone is always rewarding at the end.

Updated on Tiistai, 17/02/2026