I am a “defender” of the formal education, I don’t really believe that the learning process under non-formal education is more efficient, or actually efficient at all, but I still believe that somehow I learned thing which weren’t supposed to be a useful knowledge, but more a set of skills which allows me to evolve in a more confident way within the society. On the other hand, I stopped being too cynical, and try to modify a bit my mind set in order to welcome more easily the things that an EVS has to offer. Why do I speak about that, when the topic is actually “Life After EVS”? Because, what I got from my EVS was more than joy, despair, rest, work, stress etc. It was a proper kick in the ass to make me grow up faster than a comfortable area would do. Since the beginning of my EVS I do believe that everything has an end. So, I’m prepared since the beginning to my life after EVS. But now, considering that I went through a wonderful experience, I’m even more confident about my future back home, more than I could expect in the first place. I will move on without forgetting this wonderful time I had here. I will evolve in my life being thankful for what it gave me. Working with children, organizing event, publishing a magazine, doing workshops, all those activities will be in my memories and will impregnate my future life.

My life after EVS will be made of studying, working and meeting again a country from which I’m away since two years, and which I started to miss, not solely for the people who are there but also for the food, the life etc. I will probably miss Macedonia once in a while with its rakija, kaffana, welcoming and warm people, beautiful landscapes. But it will be always a sweet-sour nostalgia which will tell me “You had a good life over there”. It is this kind of nostalgia which is actually cheering you up and helping you during the difficult moment. It is a bitter sometimes, creating some regrets when you are alone in the darkness of your room, but also very sweet during the peaceful moment, when you lay in grass enjoying the light of the sun.

Another thing which is sure is that I will probably work for some association back in France, maybe trying to make some mentorship, just to keep meeting people from other countries. I want to keep the opening state of mind of mine by encouraging it. An open-mind asks for a lot of effort and a constant attention. EVS, if you are in the good conditions for it, will help you to get it. It’s up to you, when the experience is done, to sustain it, in any ways you can. It will be how, my EVS will survive in the most vivid way, after I come back.

I will conclude by using the sentence of a Macedonian friend who, one day, told me in a kaffana: “It comes some point when you have to decide who you are”. Somehow, EVS can help you to do so!

Thanks to everyone!