Roots of Change

“The secret of change is to focus all of our energy not in fighting the old, but in building the new” – Socrates. 

This spring I came across the Information bundle for “Roots of Change” an Erasmus Plus Youth Exchange. I was interested in the topic of re-connections with nature and transforming our habits in more sustainable ones, so I decided to apply. I was incredibly happy when I heard back from Youth Connect, the Italian sending organisation, and I got contacted by Freedom Universe, the polish organiser of “Roots of Change” , so I started getting ready for my upcoming Youth Exchange.

If you are not familiar with organising a travel on your own, don’t worry because you get support from the partner organization during the whole process of planification.

As the aim of the project was to empower people to build eco habits and find your way to take care of Mother Earth, I choose a green travel option, which means I travelled all the way to Estern Europe by bus. Finally, the departure day arrived and in July I travelled for two days from my hometown in the north-east of Italy, all across central Europe to finally arrive to Gajkowski, a small rural village in northeast Poland, where I took part in the 10 days project. There I met the rest of the people which I shared this journey with we were 24 people from Italy, Latvia, Hungary and Poland.

Roots of change is about creating connection within ourselves and the people around us. It is a chance to get back to our natural world, to connect with nature, experience bath forest, dip in the lake, walking barefoot on the grass, dancing to the rhythm of the drum, singing around the fire and living in a community of people who look after each other.

Personally, Roots of change was a chance to re evaluate the concept of community. Nowadays we live in an individualistic society that push one person to be ego oriented, to fulfil personal needs first. Human beings are social animals, and we feel the need to belong and be accepted and love as we are. It was a chance to experience the meaning of love, which is often confused with the romantic love, exclusively between two people in a couple, but the real love is all around us: in our words, how we behave and how we connect with others. People are love and it comes from within ourselves.

I learned a lot about challenging myself to observe the world from different prospectives, both my inner world and the outer one, because everyone has its own unique story, its own culture and background, its opinions and all of this matters. How special it is to learn from others, to listen to their stories and to share our differences but also everything we have in common, as at the end we are all one.

Thanks to all the beautiful people I was surrounded with, I experienced the prospect to look at myself with kinder eyes and more gratitude, to forgive myself but never forget, because everything that happens in life is a valuable lesson. I challenged myself to practice more acceptance and letting go, because things happen for us, not to us.

“Roots of change” was a truly life changing experience. Not because I manage to transform my life and myself in 10 days, it is not humanly possible. I still have my insecurities and fears, I am still struggling and grieving because life is difficult sometimes and that Is fine. But I am also so grateful, and my heart is full of love, my soul feels at peace, and I feel ready to face challenges with a calmer mind.

I can say that “Roots of change” gave me the tools and the strength to bring out in the world what I learned in the safe environment we created. During the project I plant the seeds for my own change, and I am deeply looking forward to admiring the result, I am willing to take care of it, from the roots to the crown.

Now, I have a different prospective that will allow me to cope better with whatever is going to happen because I know I have the power to do this.