How Volunteering Abroad Will Change You: Experiencing the Unknown.
By: Paulina Priske
Ask Yourself:
What is it that you want from life?
What is a cause you care about deeply?
What has been in your heart lately?
What fuels you that makes you want to express it to the world?
Experiencing a trip like this isn't just about helping others, it's about helping yourself while helping others. Life is about doing what you love and gaining a sense of fulfillment in life by helping others in need.
It will change your outlook on life. Simple as that, you will not be the same person you where before volunteering abroad. It gives you a sense of perspective, lets you realize what actually matters in life. It's so easy to get caught up in the fast life and letting things that really dont matter affect your mindset. It allows for volunteers to be a part of an experience that challenges their mindset and how they understand the world, it creates a sense of compassion that was not there before. Being able to step out of your comfort zone and take on a trip like this will open your mind up to being able to take on new challenges and opportunities. Giving back will change you.
You realize home is where you make it. A lot of us are so afraid to leave a place we have put the label “home” on. Because home creates a safety blanket for us, we begin to create this false boundary that we feel like we must stay in simply because we have created a connection there. Traveling abroad allows you to realize that home is where you make it. It has been one of the most eye-opening things for many volunteers, to be able to create bonds with an entire community and realize that they feel right at home. Volunteers quickly learn that people are not meant to stay in one spot, there are so many places to call home in the world.
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Your perspective will be altered forever. The photo above appears to most people as gifting of an item to a small boy, but to anyone who has experienced this trip knows it's the opposite. Instead that little boy is giving her something that can only be experienced first hand, something that creates change forever.
“What I gave him will one day possibly break, but what he gave me will stay with me forever. Nothing in the world can put a price on a new perspective in life, and for that I am forever grateful I was able to experience this exchange of pure humbleness.”
You form a new view of the world. It's so easy to be convinced of what is right and what is wrong because it's the culture you've been surrounded by. However, by traveling abroad you quickly learn that there is no wrong or right ways to life, there are only different ways. Your mind begins to open and you begin to understand different people in a different light.
“I’m trying my best to convey my experience through this material but I’m having a hard time. Mostly because I’m still not that great at it but secondly because it is just all more overwhelming than I could have ever imagined.”
It creates a craving for seeing more and experiencing more. Being able to go into another culture and adapt will leave you feeling like you can adapt to any situation. It allows you to see how big this world really is and how much it has to offer. It almost creates a sense of feeling like you’ve been missing out in life.
You see the real definition of HOPE. Volunteers quickly realize that hope starts with one person. When you become someone's hope it changes you forever. You realize your importance in this life, if you can simply give one person hope again it affects generations. It's a feeling that cannot be explained, when you come home others will ask you how your trip went but they will never be able to really understand what you went through.
You will be Humbled. This is the common response most will expect after returning from a volunteer trip, but this is an attribute that will have the most effect on volunteers. Traveling abroad puts volunteers in situations that may be uncomfortable to see, but something that has the greatest impact on volunteers is seeing these circumstances filled with people with nothing but smiles.
“This trip has been so full of self-reflection and gratitude. Reflection on how selfish we can be and how grateful we are sometimes…. It’s been one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences of my life. People always talk about being blessed and staying humble, but it’s times like yesterday, where I realize the true meaning behind it all…… I met some of the most selfless and amazing humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”