Hi! My name is Teodor-Vasile Graur, I'm 22 years old and I'm proud to call myself a fresh member of the ESN family.
What can I say about myself? Let's see... I'm very close to finishing my Bachelors in International Relations and European Studies, but I'm not really sure what I want to do afterwards. I've been thinking of joining some of those volunteering projects for children with poor access or with no access to education. You see, it's been about volunteering for me since I was 16 years old. It kind of became a way of living.
I can't really say much about my ESN journey or what motivated me to keep staying because I've been a volunteer herefor less than 3 months. My "unofficial" ESN story, let's say, however, started way before my interview in October.
During the summer of 2019 I worked as a photographer and trainer in a summer camp that decided to initiate a partnership with ESN Iași especially for the English Camp that was organized there. That was the place where I met Roxana, the current president of ESN Iași, and a lot of volunteers and international students. They told me so much about what they were doing in ESN and they were so excited to talk about it, you could see sparks shining in their eyes. They also gave me a lot of courage and confidence for the Erasmus+ Studies journey that I was about to go on after the summer camp. And so, I kept in touch with some of them and after I came back to Romania, the first thing I was most excited about, besides seeing my family and friends of course, was to become an ESN official member.
If I were to give some advice to my fellow volunteer friends, it would be that they shouldn't be afraid to try to aim higher and to dream bigger. I know you might think "it might not be appropriate for a fresh volunteer like me to join this big and complicated project, better let the others do it, I don't want to mess up". I was anxious at first, but I tried anyway and I only found teammates willing to help and explain whatever I needed.
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