Erti’s Story

Erti’s story of the Youth Exchange Escape from the Net Cave

“In the dictionary, it says that a milestone is an important event in the history or development of something or someone. Is it a milestone moving to a new city, a new flat, having new roommates and starting studying in a new university?
In the beginning that seemed like a milestone to me.

But in fact, it was not even worth mentioning as a milestone after discovering the Erasmus+ project. I did not know about these projects but by pure luck, I stumbled over one and decided to apply for it while watching my blank white boring wall after living a year isolated from the outside world in my room, my online classroom, my comfort zone, my own cage.
At first, I had dozens of worries. Will it even be worth it travelling that far? Am I going to like it? Are the people going to like me? Can I even fit in or maybe I am too different?

The project was awesomely balanced in giving you free time and also creating little working groups in which you could talk and also creating little working groups in which you could talk with people you did not really have the chance to meet yet.

I learned so many different and interesting things about the people, their different backgrounds and stories. Some would call this kind of relationship just friendship, others would say friends for a lifetime. But I am willing to say that all of them are part of my family!

This family helped me ‘escape from my cave’, which was an important event in my history and in my development.

Long story short, the project was the second biggest milestone in my life. Before the project, I never ever realized that there was an even bigger milestone in my life a few years ago.

Curious what my biggest milestone is?”