In my experience

YOUTH IN RADIO EXPERIENCE

For the past two weeks I was in Cisternino, this small town in Southern Italy, a region called Puglia. I went there because of a Youth Exchange funded by Youth in Action program from the EU, especially interested in knowing people from countries I didn’t really have much idea of –but I could hardly imagine what I was going to find there.

As a statement, we can say that every person lives in projections, a past time in which sometimes we spend too much time, or a future we invest our biggest efforts. Surprisingly for me, I can say that in these 10 days I lived the very present, every moment. And I took it as it is: a perfect gift.

I cannot specifically identify the reason this exchange was so good, but it was. In my opinion, people coming might have some stereotypes or fear/excitement in knowing these foreign countries’ youngsters, and I think an essential thing happened there: we met each other.

For me, that’s the basic magic thing that happened in Cisternino. We found each other and we were willing to hear from each other, from our different countries, our different cultures, our habits and lifestyles. And we discover something amazingly simple: this person, from the other part of the world, it’s just like me.

The fact that two of the participating countries were in conflict makes this a greater revelation. As one of the friends I met there was saying, the conflict is only political, ‘we are young open-minded people, and we don’t want war’. He made me think about how complicate things look sometimes and that the simplest solution is just in front of us: stop fear and prejudices, let knowledge and understanding solve everything.

Fact: from this people, that I’m glad now to call friends, I learnt so much in these days than any book, documentary or film could have ever teach me from each of these countries. Because no matter how much data you can digest from one nation, a person will always be a living testimony of its perspective of the world.

I only realised one week later the email in my inbox, saying I was selected for this project –I was in a familiar trip without Internet connection. After having this experience, I cannot be more thankful that my place wasn’t already taking when I finally read the email, because of how deeply developer this has meant to me. It’s funny because I have already lived one year abroad in the Erasmus exchange, but I think I learnt more here because we were really concerned about our diversity and we got to the important questions since the beginning –and without stop.

To sum up, I really enjoyed this project. I like very much the people, the region, the activities, the atmosphere. It’s been a great life experience and I would totally do it again. I cannot express how thankful I am to so many people for making this possible. But I would say, nevertheless and for ending, thank you for everything.