As I was getting closer and closer to finishing high school, I had to decide which university to go to continue my studies, but nothing seemed interesting or gripping enough to be my future. Another major factor contributing to this desperate state of mind was online school. Although all of my last year of high school except for two weeks was in person, almost all of the previous year was online, as well as some of the year before that. This time at home really affected my mental health, especially the two weeks during 12th grade. Even though two weeks might not seem as much, it hit me harder than all of the time before. I had struggled with my mental health before, but this time I fully acknowledged it and felt it, it was not just a diagnosis. It had a massive impact on my studies, I started skipping school, and even though the workload kept increasing, I barely did anything. I had no motivation and my plans for the future did not seem as exciting as before. Until then, I had wanted to study aerospace engineering, but as I was getting ready for the entrance exams, I kept thinking to myself if this really was something I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life, even though I still found the field interesting.
As a backup plan, I had thought of taking a gap year of volunteering abroad, but that was my last choice, if I didn’t get into any of the universities that I wanted. My plan was always to go abroad for studying, I did not want to stay in Latvia. As I kept missing the deadlines for applying to universities abroad, the option of volunteering became more and more intriguing, as I knew that I would not be able to study and use my full potential if I didn’t take a break to rest and take care of myself. So I started looking for volunteering opportunities abroad and several caught my eye. Before I found out about European Solidarity Corps, I thought about going to Africa or South America, because one of the universities that I had wanted to go to was the University of Cape Town, but unfortunately I unpurposely missed the deadline for that because they have a really early deadline.
When I found out about ESC and registered on the website, I started looking for opportunities almost every day, since they update the website quite often. At first, I had some criteria - it had to be in a warmer place than Latvia, around 6 - 10 months, so that I would have the summer after high school at home, to enjoy with my friends and rest at home, enjoy the rarely warm weather there. I applied for several opportunities in France, Austria, Portugal. I kept looking for opportunities in Italy because I had become quite fond of the country the few times I had been there while on vacation. There were not a lot of projects in Italy, but as soon as I saw on the map (the opportunities
are shown on the map as well, in case location is your main criteria) that there is something in Sardinia, I clicked on it immediately. It was for a bit longer than I had planned - a whole year, but I thought that living in Italy for a year would be a dream, so I applied for it anyway and it became my priority. Lucky for me, I was offered a place here, and I accepted it immediately. Unfortunately, I did have to leave earlier than expected, but this is an opportunity I would not have wanted to miss.
So far, it has been great. The city of Sassari is really beautiful and I like that we live at the centre with all the historical buildings. I eat gelato very often and have tried several different gelaterias, and I believe that I have found the best one. Italian food was obviously one of the reasons I chose this place. I still haven’t had the chance to explore the island a lot, but the places that I have seen have been delightful. I can’t wait to explore all of it.
Charlotte