I AM, Into Awesome Moments!

Hi everyone,

I'm Elisa Pistone, 23 years old, transgender girl, I was born in Milan but I've been living in

Monza for about 3 years. I am currently in Sweden as a volunteer with awesome people.

In the last 5 years I have also been a volunteer in an Italian association, which deals with children's rights and which has been organizing volunteer camps in Romania and Moldova since 1999 and inclusive paths in Italy.

From 2017 to today I have participated in three camps in Romania, two inclusive paths in Italy and many different volunteering or training activities.

During the last year I understood that I wanted to have an experience abroad, possibly as a

volunteer, which would last at least a year and so I started looking for some ESC projects that

might interest me.

Finally, thanks to a friend , I got to know Awesome People !

I arrived on November 21st and was greeted by Fredrik with a beautiful and unexpected hug.

The first few days were very intense for me because I was not used to speaking and

listening to English 24 hours a day, because I had to learn a lot of information in a short time.

And finally because I arrived just when Awesome People was hosting a meeting, the Meet-Up, with many other ESC volunteers from all over Sweden.

About 20 people all in the same house sharing moments of fun and various knowledge

activities: we talked, played, laughed, prepared typical Swedish Christmas dishes and had a

barbecue in the middle of the woods.

For me it was also very useful to start getting into the mood of the association.

After the Meet-Up, the time has come for me to get used to the new daily routine.

It wasn't too complicated because I'm really appreciating where I live and I'm finding the

work environment very positive and stimulating.

This first month has gone really well, I'm having a great time with the other volunteers and I think we will be able to become a wonderful group.

Personally I felt very welcomed and helped by everyone and this makes me really happy.

It's not a foregone conclusion. I can't wait to experience the next few weeks, the new year looks very interesting and exciting.