My dream was to become a facilitator and I’ve achieved it!
Wanting to become a facilitator wasn’t always on my mind. It came to my mind quite recently actually.
Before the start of this summer I was just a normal teenager playing guitar and not giving a potato about responsibilities in life. Then a friend of mine introduced me the non-formal education a.k.a Erasmus+ programme. I knew about Erasmus+ before from school but I never really took interest because I’m a problematic kid in school and no daredevil would consider taking me anywhere except the principal’s office. After my friend explained to me what is actually going on outside of my eggshell, I was quite interested. I decided to try and apply for a youth exchange project called “Gamification exchange”, little did I know that this is the event that was going to turn my life around. As I arrived in Sofia, I kept my expectations low since I am quite the pessimistic guy, but after setting of for Romania, things started to get better. I arrived in Romania at 1 am. It was a complete chaos, people going up and down, changing rooms and complaining and I didn’t know anyone, but I enjoyed the energy I was sensing so much. As the first 2 days passed, I had already settled in and met everyone. It all just clicked instantly but one of the things that caught my eye was the main facilitator named Alice. I didn’t like her at first but as the days went on and on, I was admiring her work more and more. I loved what she was doing and the way she was talking to the people. In the begging, I never really thought that I could do what she was doing, but in the last 3 days I was way too much into it and I was just looking for a way to make sure this happened again, and then it came to my mind and I said to her:
- “Alice can I please be your helper in the next project?”
And of course, what can she say to a guy that she knows from 6 days except:
- “I’ll think about it. “
And that obviously wasn’t enough for me. It was when I realized what I wanted to do for a living: travel, teach and learn, and of course make money of that. So, I kept grinding the same words on her head until she eventually said yes to me because of my huge enthusiasm and charms. And now I’m here writing this after my first experience with facilitation and my second project. The only thing I can say is that I absolutely loved every second of what I was doing, and I can’t wait to become 18 and take a training course and keep on doing what I love. It’s making me full of life and joy.
My advice on anyone interested in facilitation is be persistent and show that you care!
by Ognyan Gabrovski
Participant in
YE "Make social inclusion happen" in Costinesti, Romania