This week started with the end of my first Youth Exchange as a participant.
I was just over a week in Spain with Pelin, Fredrik and 3 Swedish guys, Viktor, Thea and Sanna.
It was a great experience that I will definitely remember, especially for some people I had the opportunity to know and hope to meet again in my life.
On the way back to Sweden I stopped to think about a few things about how I lived this experience.
I arrived full of anxieties, worried that the other participants would not accept me and/or would judge me for who I am (a trans girl).
The week went uphill, as already mentioned, I met wonderful people and I gradually felt more free to express myself, getting to experiment with a little make-up in public for the first time.
But at the end I realized one thing, namely that during those days I was too focused on my anxieties and that this had an excessive influence on how I experienced the Youth Exchange, also preventing me from getting to know the people around me better and giving them the chance to get to know me.
I realized that it's good to feel like myself and that I don't give a damn what other people think because it's not something I can control.
I understood that because of my fears I am losing opportunities for growth and exchange that I may never relive again.
Sometimes maybe things could go wrong but that doesn't mean I have to preclude myself from experiencing all the other happy moments life has to offer me.
At Awesome People I feel like I have a safe space where I can express myself and I want to take this opportunity to be a little more free and myself.
Be Yourself. Be Brave. Be Proud.