My name is Aigly, I come from Greece and I am a volunteer for FITT.
I arrived here at 6th of February, very happy for my new city but also a bit stressed because of the big change. I was finally getting the chance to live in this beautiful city! Having been here before many time, I already was in love with this unique vibe that Timisoara has.
But also I was so excited to work on the project that I am volunteering for! It has to do with youth work and is connected to volunteering work I had previously done here, in Timisoara, in the summer of 2019.
I moved to Romania 3 months ago, but spent over 2 of them in isolation.
But then, covid-19 came, and with it, lockdown, isolation and all the turmoil that followed these. My quarantine started on the 10th of March. Having spent 7 weeks in self-isolation, and 2 weeks in actual quarantine for safety reasons, before the state of emergency started in Romania, it all adds up to more than 2 months of not going out.
Take a moment to imagine moving to a city in a foreign country. This is usually a scary and ground-shaking experience on its own. Now add almost immediately being forced to stay inside, before having the chance to explore your new city or the opportunity to feel like you are part of it, without speaking the language or being with your family.
Ever since I moved, I have done a lot of things to cultivate myself.
I have been learning how to play the guitar on my own and I practiced ceramics. I started taking more seriously some hobbies of mine, like photography and poetry to mention a few, and even started working on art projects with my roommate.
I read “Blindness” by Saramago, a great book (which I recommend to everyone, by the way, especially during the times of Corona) and I started an informational book about photography.
I also started 2 online courses on edX, one about learning and one about justice, and I started learning the Romanian language.
I finished some great series and watched a few amazing movies, and started watching Romanian cinema, which I fell in love with! All in all, they made me think a lot, they broadened my mind, pleased my aesthetics and confronted my emotions.
Finally, I introduced working out in my daily routine.
These are not all, but they are what took up most of my free time. Along with these, I also had to work for the project that I came here for. Mostly it was in the form of seminars and workshops to prepare myself for the work in the youth centers.
Most of these things though happened during the weeks that I have been in isolation. Not being able to go outside has forced me to look inside for growth, fun, development and feeling content.
I could whine and complain. And sure I did at first, and that is fine!
Or I could get over it and make use of this peculiar yet still unique situation.
It was hard at first, especially considering I am not in my home country while going through this crisis. But I like to think that great difficulties like this always give a great chance for change. Spending so long inside a house, that I barely felt like my own at the time, forced me to change my habits and adapt to a situation that I didn’t sign up for (or any of us, for that matter!).
I could whine and complain.
And sure I did at first, and that is fine! Allowing yourself to feel some weakness is always important, and this definitely was a situation that invited one to lose control of the positive impact one’s actions have upon themselves.
Or I could get over it and make use of this peculiar yet still unique situation. Isolation and lack of social contact forces one to stay on their own, confront their thoughts, and value their priorities better, with the fresh look of having lost what they previously took for granted.
The second option is what I chose and still am choosing to do. And I am glad.
In the end, there is no bad without good, and no good without bad. At the same time, unfortunate events are unavoidable and there is nothing we can do to gain control over them. Which side we choose to pay attention to the most, though, is completely up to us.