Vera Ivanova, PR

Everyone is afraid of something. My fear is connected with loneliness. I have always had a dred of appearing alone in a big city or in a metro or in an unfamiliar country.

This winter I realized that to win my fear i needed to face it. An idea crossed my mind. The idea was to fly to the country I had never been to and to live there for some period of time.

Naturally,  I started searching for necessary information at once. I needed the most comfortable variant for my budget but the most interesting one. The decision to take part in a volunteering project didn’t come to my mind at the first sunset.

First thing I considered was a famous American program. I have been searching the for the couple of days and found out that it was very expensive  and complicated for me.  Otherwise,  taking part in volunteering project seemed safer as it was very risky to go to another corner of the world.

 So, I found the organization that which was a representative of the international volunteering organization and courageously wrote a letter to learn what international volunteering was in reality. After all information was explained and I had to choose where I would like to go. Undoubtedly, I gave my preference to Iceland. My project was about to help old people to participate into special sport events. Before the project started I had no opportunity to find out the names or numbers of other volunteers so I was absolutely scared to step into the unknown.

I tried to calm down and went to the airport.

In a few days I got acquainted with all the volunteers who arrived from different parts of the world: France, Spain, Scotland, Indonesia, England  and Canada. We lived in a small town in the South-West of Iceland.  This country is gorgeous. Waterfalls, mountains, picturesque nature and strange weather, winds, rains, sometimes sun… I really fell l in love with this piece and calmness. Initially, I challenged myself if I was able to face my fears face to face. And I did it!

I came to the  conclusion that the only way to become better  and stronger is to face your fears, do the things you thought you would never dare and open the world that is eagerly waiting for such brave and bold travelers.