21 years in Romania, almost 8 in Portugal, and beginning the unknown duration of my time in France.
I’m Andra and I’ve always known that I wanted to travel, live and breathe other cultures, learn other languages and understand how humans work the same way but differently at the same time.
I’m an enthusiastic human from Transylvania who’s never been able to stray away from communication. I enjoy being in the middle of people most of the time, though I believe great ideas can also come in silence, alone, after a mind-opening conversation. I can be a bit of a grammar nazi at times, but that’s also helped me create bonds with people and have funny conversations. I find it beautiful how communication unites humans. As an ex-pat, I am used to international and multidisciplinary environments and I am always curious about all things intercultural. I think that what sets me apart (besides the fact that I’m OCD about learning languages), is how much I care about people and the projects I am a part of. I believe social and environmental shifts are necessary and I want to be a part of them. I am the happiest while being in the middle of creating great memories, making people feel taken care of, and giving the will to evolve, be better, make better.
So, after some good years working a corporate 9 to 6 job and feeling ever more miserable, COVID 19 struck as the cherry on top. Worst things to the best, I went through a depressive episode which made me realize I needed a change. So I decided it was now or never for getting into international volunteering, as it had also been my wish for some years (though lack of courage and society’s imposed need for survival in a certain way has stopped me from trying it before).
Anyway, here I was, still not well psychologically, but slowly feeling better, getting accepted into a language and intercultural project in Italy. However, I had my eyes set on this amazing eco-project in the South of France.
Given that they needed someone on communication and I needed to figure out my love and hate relationship with communication while doing something I felt was worth it, I went for it full blast.
24h driving my car from Porto to Lastours, fast forward to right now, a month and a half in my project. Almost every day I tell myself how it was the best decision I could have made, to be here. I understood from week 1 (and a half 🙂 ) that I truly loved communication, I had just not done it in the right places, for the right purposes. So objective nº 1 was achieved at light speed!
The second objective and the biggest fear was what about after the project? What if I get lost in the middle of everything and realize after a year that I’ve not moved on, I’m not on the path to evolution, and maybe I’ve even taken a few steps back, or in the wrong direction? Well, nothing of the sort, it was just my overthinking, overanalyzing, anxious mind creating unreal scenarios.
1 month and a half in, I already have a base plan of my future, I am very excited about it, and IDC and the project are allowing me to catch every possible opportunity to learn what I need to in order to succeed after.
Will I become the next Bibie? Probably not, but I will hopefully become my own version of a woman I admire, that is helping bring good change in the world and bettering the lives of the people she crosses paths with. With a smile on her face and always happy to give a hand to those in need, with a lot of energy to never stop adapting and making new plans, with at least half the world visited.
Let’s see where this goes, I am pumped to see it moving!
