I would say my experience can be summed up as follows: being myself, peace and listening. Participating in this training allowed me to be myself for the first time, to talk and express my opinions the way I feel them, without fearing they would be judged. This brought on a sense of peace that I felt throughout the training, even when we were talking about difficult topics that we as young people were maybe facing for the first time and speaking out loud for the first time. And listening, as difficult as it may have been, we learned and practiced listening to each other, I felt heard for the first time, but I also started truly listening to others. And listening is almost always what we need most in real life.
I would recommend this training to you if you want to get a sense of what real life is like in Bosnia and Herzegovina in miniature. Throughout the days of the training, you will go through situations that are common, but sometimes skilfully hidden under the rug, things that have to be talked about and that you will talk about, you will get to know what are usually called ‘others and those who are different’ and you will come to see that we are all in the same boat, you’ll understand that it is worth it and that everything you had been doing and learning on a small scale can be scaled up and made part of everyday life, because that is where everything begins and ends.