My Volunteering is Cool: Arianna
I am never serious on social networks but right now I think I should say something about my experience in Hungary. Everyone knows how much I like sharing my experiences and make the others interested in what I do and that’s my aim right now: share and interest. I’ve just came back from Budapest, where, together with 14 Italian students and 15 Hungarians, I had the chance to do some volunteering work. I built some birdfeeders and I placed them in a forest, I cooked for 60 needy families and 50 homelessness, I played with some gypsy children, I taught them how to count in Italian,I learnt how to do that in Hungarian and I did many other things that gave me much more than the expected. After playing with gypsy children I had lunch with them. Our teachers told everyone that we were supposed to have gyros for lunch: all the kids started screaming as if someone gifted them with a gold b
ar while my face wasn’t that enthusiastic because I’m not a huge fan of gyros. However, I ate and shared the moment with those kids without any problem. When they left the school canteen, our teacher told us that those kids probably hadn’t had breakfast nor had eaten the day before or even the previous one, he made us notice that none of them had new clothes or something that could be defined as “fashionable”. In that moment I felt so bad because I have everything I need and I’m never happy, I felt bad because when my mum cooks something that I don’t like I always complain and I freak out if my iPhone is broken while they, even if they’re not as lucky as I am, are just happy anyway, they don’t bother or hurt anyone. When the kids hugged me saying that I’m a good person, asking if I could go with them, my heart was immediately filled up with joy, I’ve never felt this happy ever in my life. Leaving them was very sad, knowing that I made them happy is something that I’ll never forget. When we served food to the needy families and the homelessness, we were expecting many more people coming. I looked around and I just saw a few people in the school canteen asking for food or eating. Many of the people that should have joined us just refused to come in because they felt embarrassed. The ones who came in said “thank you” many times to everyone, they used some containers found on the streets and they went away with a bitter smile on their face that literally broke my heart, but thinking about the fact I made them happy, even if temporarily, made me fulfilled because I did my best to help someone. The episodes I’ve told are just a few of those that really left a mark on my soul because beyond the volunteering itself I met so many beautiful people that I see as a role model and inspiration. They gave me much more than school books, they’ve been more useful than staying at home thinking about how much my life sucks. Feeling the others’ pain and changing it into happiness, creating positive memories, putting effort in trying to be in the others’ shoes just opened my heart and my mind, giving me the opportunity to live my life in a different way. I never expose myself here on Facebook, but if I do that it’s because I have a clear purpose. Help the others, respect everything that surrounds you without any discrimination, depose all the prejudices and build bridges, get connected to the world, go out from your safe zone and learn that life is not all about the appearance but also about essence. Sharing links on Facebook is not enough to help someone, just leave your mobile phones at home and go down the streets to do everything is possible to give someone a hope. Helping the others, no matter if people or animals, is never all about giving but it’s mostly about receiving and I’ll treasure everything I received for the rest of my life because nothing is better than being gifted with this kind of experiences. I could never ever been more thankful to the people that made this possible.
ar while my face wasn’t that enthusiastic because I’m not a huge fan of gyros. However, I ate and shared the moment with those kids without any problem. When they left the school canteen, our teacher told us that those kids probably hadn’t had breakfast nor had eaten the day before or even the previous one, he made us notice that none of them had new clothes or something that could be defined as “fashionable”. In that moment I felt so bad because I have everything I need and I’m never happy, I felt bad because when my mum cooks something that I don’t like I always complain and I freak out if my iPhone is broken while they, even if they’re not as lucky as I am, are just happy anyway, they don’t bother or hurt anyone. When the kids hugged me saying that I’m a good person, asking if I could go with them, my heart was immediately filled up with joy, I’ve never felt this happy ever in my life. Leaving them was very sad, knowing that I made them happy is something that I’ll never forget. When we served food to the needy families and the homelessness, we were expecting many more people coming. I looked around and I just saw a few people in the school canteen asking for food or eating. Many of the people that should have joined us just refused to come in because they felt embarrassed. The ones who came in said “thank you” many times to everyone, they used some containers found on the streets and they went away with a bitter smile on their face that literally broke my heart, but thinking about the fact I made them happy, even if temporarily, made me fulfilled because I did my best to help someone. The episodes I’ve told are just a few of those that really left a mark on my soul because beyond the volunteering itself I met so many beautiful people that I see as a role model and inspiration. They gave me much more than school books, they’ve been more useful than staying at home thinking about how much my life sucks. Feeling the others’ pain and changing it into happiness, creating positive memories, putting effort in trying to be in the others’ shoes just opened my heart and my mind, giving me the opportunity to live my life in a different way. I never expose myself here on Facebook, but if I do that it’s because I have a clear purpose. Help the others, respect everything that surrounds you without any discrimination, depose all the prejudices and build bridges, get connected to the world, go out from your safe zone and learn that life is not all about the appearance but also about essence. Sharing links on Facebook is not enough to help someone, just leave your mobile phones at home and go down the streets to do everything is possible to give someone a hope. Helping the others, no matter if people or animals, is never all about giving but it’s mostly about receiving and I’ll treasure everything I received for the rest of my life because nothing is better than being gifted with this kind of experiences. I could never ever been more thankful to the people that made this possible.Feel free to correct every mistake I made or change the sentences that don’t seem to have sense! Thank you for asking me to share my thoughts in English, that made me very happy!
Arianna
Dear Arianna, I will not change a single word of what you have written. You are the reason we create these programs. Keep up the good work, keep volunteering, come back here anytime!