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The first picture that comes to the mind of a city-person when they hear about living on the countryiside is this: The time is around 4 a.m., it’s Saturday. As the roosters start crowing the first rays of the sun softly touch the fertile fields, houses, tractors and put a goldish glowing on the face of the people. The people who have just woken up making their ways to feed their animals, milk the cows, collect the eggs and then go along to their fields to make sure the plantations are doing well. They spend most of their time there, busily working to provide fresh vegetables and meat for themselves and for those in the jungle of honking cars, smogs, and skyscrapers. For the faceless mass of suits squeezing even the last penny out of their job so that one day they can afford the shiny cars and the spacious houses they always wanted. And maybe one day they will be able to quit their jobs, and move away from the constant mindless hustling. To the countryside! People from the city tend to associate villages with peace, freedom, pollution-free air and health but the truth is not that simple. In the city you are used to an excellent public transportation system, which you will barely find in smaller settlements. It is really irritating missing the bus and then having to wait an hour for the next one. At least there isn’t a heavy traffic on the streets, you can use your car to get around if you have one. Another drawback of the village is the poor education system and the lack of offices. Which means, if you want your kids to have quality education, or if you have some administrational task to do, prepare to commute to the nearest city. I have to apologise if my writing seems to paint an intimidating picture of the countryside. Because despite all these bad things I very much like living there. You get so many impulse which you can’t get anywhere else. You literally have to walk a couple feet to the closest tree and take tastiest fruit from it, walk a little more to see and to pet various animals and you don’t have to struggle with asthma and many other diseases because the only thing polluting the air are a few vehicles and fertilizer once in a while. Besides it the real estates are a lot cheaper so you can buy a house there for the price of the city-apartment. And how can you have a grill-party in an apartment? To sum it up, I can say that living on the countryside is not better or worse compared to living in the city. It’s different and everybody has to decide which life they want to choose. #city #countryside #whattochoose #balancingchoices

Something I really enjoy doing is reading biographies of successful people to find out how they did what they did, to find out the possibilities they have been given that brought them to success. An antithesis that often emerges is the life in big cities versus the life in small towns, both of them with pros and cons. I have been living in a very small town for my whole life, therefore I might be biased, but at the same time, I now study in a relatively large city with about a million citizens and I travelled a lot, also abroad, then I kind of experienced both of them. Until I was a teenager in high school I never went to Turin alone or with my friends, I never went out there, I never really spent time in that city. Then, one day, my classmates organized a “trip” there with the bus and I still remember how fascinated I was by that. Lots of things to do, lots of things to visit, to experience, shops, museums, an amazing architecture, expositions, concerts and even more. Now, just describing it like that, it seems I lived in the middle age and then I suddenly landed in the 21st century, but it’s not entirely true. Life in a smaller town is just different. I once read an article that children living in huge American metropolis like NY believe that the shape of the Findus is the actual shape of the codfish. Thanks God I didn’t grow up in NY then. There are advantages and disadvantages in both situations. It is undoubtably true that a city can offer you more possibilities, but it’s up to you to chose whether to grab them or not, and which ones. Life in a city will surely gives you a broader mind set, an open mind, but then it’s you who have to decide how to use that, to make a good and fruitful use of it, otherwise it’s pointless. We also have to consider that emerging in a small town it’s much easier. I live in a town with 2000 people and since I travelled a bit thanks to Erasmus, I am known as “the traveller” in here. In Turin in would be perfectly normal and usual, so that’s why it would be more arduous to become someone, to shine. To conclude, I believe that neither the town, nor the city is the “best option” to be successful in life. It is really up to you to catch the possibilities life can give you and make a good use of them, regardless of where you come from. Moreover, you can’t always decide where you will be living, it’s life that brings you there, what you have to do is picking the best of it, and then going out of your comfort zone to explore the outside-world. In this way, you can be somehow successful. #possibilities #whatdoyouchoose #whichdoorareyougoingtoopen

‘The weather is going to turn bad this afternoon, could you help me with the hay later?’ I was just visiting my grandfather who has a small farm and a few cows. His farmland is scattered around our small town in Slovenia, a couple of fields and some meadows surrounded by forests. ‘Of course.’ I said, sweeping away the looming thought of tomorrow’s exam. It was exam month and the weekend offered me a chance to catch my breath and relax my mind in our quiet town from the busy atmosphere of Ljubljana, my university city where I study electrical engineering. I quickly went home to have lunch and then jumped on my bike to ride to the meadow. There my grandfather was already working to put the hay in the hayrack with his band of helpers - whoever of his friends had the time today when he called them. I was the youngest one by quite a margin, the other guys - including my grandfather - were all around 70 or 80 years old, which is not an unusual sight on small farms all around Slovenia. Bigger farms that work on large swathes of land, with plenty of livestock and modern farming equipment that can earn you a good living - even though a farmer’s life is not easy - usually stay in the family, but the smaller farms are struggling with a shortage of young people willing to run them. It’s just not profitable and the current lifestyle of youngsters is in stark contrast to that of a farmer. Waking up at five in the morning, cleaning cow feces, not being able to travel around because the livestock needs you every day and also the large amounts of physical work. My grandfather often says that a farmer is even more industrious than God, because as it’s said in the Bible, God rested on the seventh day, but a farmer would work very hard if he knew that the eight day would be rainy. I quickly climbed on the hayrack to take up the hardest part of today’s work; stuffing the hayrack with hay. My grandfather was picking rows of hay with the tractor and dumping it in front of the hayrack, where two others were passing it up to me with the pitchforks. It was baking hot this day, but it was easy to work with the old people telling all kinds of jokes and stories which they probably learned when they were about my age. I couldn’t help to think about what my town will look like when I am their age. Will be my grandchildren willing to help me at my home? Who will run my grandfathers’ farm when he is gone? Where is all this knowledge that my grandfather and his friends have about the livestock, the seasons, weather forecasting and the farmwork going to go if nobody is prepared to listen to him? Our grandparents have so much to offer to us, but the truth is that young people have so much to do now. So many options, so many things to experience, so many opportunities in the cities and abroad, that a sedimentary farmer’s life is far from most youngsters’ idea of the future. I said goodbye to my grandfather, after waiting for him to milk the cows and jumped on the bike with a big bottle of warm fresh milk which I love so much. By the time I got home, half of it was already missing. As Bob Dylan sings ‘The times they are a-changin’ and they really are. What the future has for us is uncertain, but perhaps before the turn of the century, the lifestyle and vision of the youth will change again, as it has in the past. We mustn’t worry too much, because Destiny has a funny way of sorting things out the way they should be, all we must do is follow our heart and do what fulfils us. #lightness #memories #howdoyouuseyourtime

It is common knowledge that we live in a society driven by the constant pursuit of individuality, a society divided into multiple socially enforced norms, whether they encourage positive, or negative behavior. In my view however, there is one in particular that stands out. And that is the Norm of Success. According to this perception, it is the human nature, the natural evolution that propel human beings to succeed, or rather, condemn them to do so. As a young girl, who grew up and lived in a small village somewhere in the Greek coastline for the first 18 years of my life, I had the time to observe and assimilate the key characteristics that are incorporated into a villager’s mindset. The latter, I find, is mostly shaped by the way he/she was raised within his/her family and the prevailing values that are representative within the community. According to those differences, I hold the impression that are mainly 3 patterns that characterize young people who live in villages, concerning the way they perceive their hometown. Firstly, the “minimalist” ones. Those are the ones who actually like this simple lifestyle, the routine they have and opt for a peaceful, yet fulfilling future within the village borders. They are not planning on becoming the next business-suit-owners walking down Wall Street, but they are pleased with this decision anyway. Secondly, you have the desperate-to-go-big ones. Those youngsters are determined to follow their dreams and aspirations. They may not have the means, or the support to do so, but their resourcefulness and optimistic attitude allows them to achieve everything they set their mind to. A vibrant city is most likely to be the perfect place for them. Lastly, we have the desperate-to-leave ones. The ones who hopelessly want to move out of their village and see the life beyond. The difference here is that they don’t know how to achieve that, and they usually tend to keep a pessimistic attitude about this “unrealistic” ability of theirs. It is possible that they will compromise for their family home. Allow me to elaborate more on the last two categories. What separates prominently those two, is on the one hand the good management and on the other the mismanagement of information. What I mean is that our era is considered to be an era of equal opportunities, most of those don’t need to be right next door, since you are probably already holding them in your hand. Yes! I’m referring to the Internet which if used properly, could help you realize some of your wildest dreams, inform you about the alternatives you have and prevent you from following a lifestyle which you don’t desire. Internships, job openings, national or European programs and volunteer opportunities domestic or abroad are just some of them. The village mindset, the most likely close-minded community where I grew up and many people do, will incite you to aim low and come after the trodden path, the expected one. But what really distinguish the desperate-to-go-big and the desperate-to-leave ones is that the former use this desperation in their own interests and treat a crisis as a challenge, or rather, as an invitation to open a new window, which they know will not lead them anywhere just because it’s open, unless they are ready to observe the view. So, the Norm of Success is usually identified with money, fame or power. In my opinion though, success closely associates with emotional balance, internal fulfillment, the power of giving back. And it always comes as an outcome of failure, which to experience also means to experience the desire and realize that sometimes is more powerful than any opposition. So what’s your most profound desire? Your personal definition of success? #choices #definitions #orrestrictions?

In this story I would like to make a tribute to my grandfather. When I was 8 years old, me, my sisters and my parents, moved to a farm in the middle of nowhere. Wessingtange, near the German border. This farm was quite old and had a lot of land, which we needed for our horses and dogs, and so a lot had to be done. My grandparents would stay with us every summer, in a caravan behind the house. Every summer I would just sit with my grandfather. He was a silent man, but he loved teasing us. When I sat with him, he would just look at me, put a little smile on his face, or pull on my ponytail, and I felt like I could take on the world. My grandpa used to be a carpenter, so every summer he wanted to work on the farm. After a few years of living on the farm, though, we found out that he had cancer. We had no idea how long he had left. Yet, still every summer, when we got back from vacation, he would have fixed something on the farm. He would paint the doors, make a path of stones into the yards, or he would fix the fences for the horses. He would get tired after the day, lay on the couch, with our Flatcoated Retriever in his arms, and he would say nothing. He never admitted he was tired, but we could see it. He didn’t want to send us away. I think this was his way of enjoying the company of his family. And that dog, that dog was his biggest love. My grandfather was a man who did not easily give compliments or say his pride. Yet, as the years passed he would get more and more emotional. He would tell me how proud he was of everyone. One time he got in the hospital, we all thought he was going to die, but he kept holding my hand and I prayed for him to make it, even though I am not that religious, he was. And guess what? He made it. After that he still wanted to fix the farm. My mother always worries, she would tell him to stop working. But he would not listen. One time my mom was away and so my grandpa wanted to work. I told him to please be careful. He looked at me and there was a moment of silence. He listened. After my grandfather died, everything on the farm reminded us of him. It was painful, it hurt, but it brought so many beautiful memories. And that is one of the wonderful things of living on a farm. Everything that he had done, everything that he had fixed, it all carries memories of him. The house is one big memory of him. Once my parents can’t live there, my sister wants to take over the farm. After that, I just hope it will stay in the family as long as I live. It’s a place where I will take my kids and tell them about the most strong and amazing man I have ever known.

Wake up to a rooster crowing? It's impossible for me. I'm used to it so much that I don't even notice it. A brook behind the garden with a wild-duck pair coming back every spring, and the smell of fertilizer. They are all part of village life. We build a snowman with my brother every winter, on my birthday I always have a grill party in the garden. I just have to go out the door to enjoy the sunshine and some fresh air. When I was younger I planned to write a novel about our adventures behind the garden. We always played next to the brook, or – inadvertently – we also played in the brook. Once we saved a chicken with my brother. It was behind our back door so we thought it escaped from our neighbour who has a dozen chickens. My brother grasped it and threw it into the neighbours garden. It turned out a few minutes later that an old lady who lived a bit further let her chickens out so they could eat some fresh grass. We’ve never told about it anyone and our neighbour never complained about having too much chickens. But slowly I grew up. It wasn’t interesting anymore to play in the backyard. I wanted to go to the cinema and go shopping with friends or just having a chat in a cafe. I started to think about how much more comfortable it is to live in a town. Be at a party without the thought that I have to go home with the last bus at 9 pm. or wait for the first bus in the morning. I could save hours every day without traveling between my village and my school. The only store here closes at 1 pm on weekdays and it is closed all weekend. Did I forget to buy something? It's almost a daylong program to get it from the closest town. And there is the big question: Can I live in a village all my life? Can I get a job here? Young people move to town. Old people die. And in the end there's no one. And yet, I will stay here as long as possible. I’m still a girl who loves snowmen, chickens and never wakes up because of crow. #countrylife #countryside #howdoyouwakeup?

Small towns. Everyone knows everyone and they know everything about each other. Every day you go out with the same people on the same places and you do the same things because nothing new really happens there. There are no opportunities, no entertainment, no new people to meet and suddenly you are stuck with the same old boring routine. Then from а friend of а friend (because that is how you find out about everything in the small town) you hear about exchanges. And you think to yourself that finally something interesting is happening, you believe this is just like а trip outside your country. You know that this is an opportunity which rarely happens so you decide to go for it even without fully realising what you are getting yourself into. And then you leave. You are excited, you wonder what to pack for this “weird” country where the weather is completely different each day. You arrive there and you are in shock. Everything is totally different from what you imagined. You are in а house with sixty people from all around Europe. You don’t speak the same language, you don’t share the same values, you don’t have the same habits. Suddenly you have to live with them, you have to cook with them, you have to spend your whole days with them. At the beginning it annoys you sometimes, it scares you but at the end they become like your family- you may not always get along but you love each other so much. But exchanges do not only reflect on how you communicate and act with other people. They also change you personally. You face your fear to speak in front of а crowd, to make а fool out of yourself, to approach strangers, to feel free to make mistakes and learn from them. Then, for those two weeks as cliché as it may sound your life completely changes. You not only get attached to people from all around the world and you realise that everywhere in Europe you will always have а place to stay. You also change your mindset, your thinking about the future and you start finding opportunities where you thought before that they were not any. Out of nowhere, this amazing dream called an exchange is over. You know that if you can you will always come back there, to this place which you now call home. The harsh reality of the small towns hits you and then you realise that hoping for things to change by themselves is never gonna happen. The solution comes to your mind, that YOU are the one who is going to make а difference. YOU are the one who is going to change things. YOU are the one who is going to find opportunities not only for yourself but also help other people in need. Because that what exchanges do, they teach you how not only how to think about yourself but also about others. Thank you exchanges for changing my life. #exchanges #accountability #perspectives

Back to 21st August 2019. I was on the moving stairs in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. On the left wall was: Travelling is the only thing you buy which makes you richer. I was surprised by that sentence. And this is why I remember that moment. But it’s true. The memories created while travelling will always belong just to you. Nobody could never delete them. There is a question which makes me think every time: “will my life be interesting enough to be told?”. And every time I promise myself it will be. And I chose Erasmus Plus as starting point. I started this uncommon path because I couldn’t believe that the world was just the view from my bedroom’s window. I didn’t trust all the humans didn’t have any aspiration or vision in their lives. I wanted to move and meet people with my same values and desires. I wanted to create more out of this my live. Because I have just this one. Probably the fact I grew up in a small village, nurtured even more my willing and passion for exploring. A lion can’t be in a cage for all its life, at one point he wants to run free in the savanna. With Erasmus Plus I am having the possibility to travel and meet international people with my same thoughts, fears and unanswered questions about themselves. And with the deep desire to explore and discover more and more. But it not all about travelling, are the people you meet there to make it unbelievable and priceless. Neither the most precise and clear words could describe fully these experiences. At the beginning you are nothing together, but then there is nothing without you . Every time on the first day, everyone is looking to each others trying to figure out who are those faces there. Then someone starts to talk. Usually the loudest of the Italians. And hours later you are talking and laughing until crying with people who usually live thousands of kilometres far from you. You start to share with them happy moments. But are the tough ones that make the group and the bonds stronger and stronger. In a indelible way. And on the last day you all are a huge family. And it always emotionally harmful to say bye to them. You wish it will not be the last time you see those faces in your life. But I can say it’s hard and challenging keeping the connections. After all my Erasmus I learnt it’s not about the distance but the silent. It requires a lot of effort from both sides but it’s possible. And when this happens you are amazed by what young people can create. You are amazed by the person who are becoming and by your new way of thinking. You recognize no more yourself. Because these experiences change and make you grow. It’s inevitable. I am trying my best to keep being part of my Erasmus people’s lives because they are special. They chose to live your same way. This makes them different and they always will be so. I could lose everything, but I will never stop travelling and meeting people. They are the only things that defines me as a person. #paths #Erasmusplus #projects #travelling

Both these options have something to offer. It depends on how we sense it and how we are. No everyone is able to live in a big city, perhaps somebody looking for that constant noise and 24/7 life. When people hear “countryside”, many think about poor and a slow life, but is it really like that? When you ask someone from the countryside how is it for him to live there, he will say that he is happy there and he has everything he needs. There is no rush, no stress, though they also face difficult situations. I am living in a small town, called Detva (Slovakia), surrounded by hills and near an extinct volcano. to live here is like living in the countryside, and there are many differences compared to a big city. I am 18 years old, and during these years I visited a lot of countries and big cities as Amsterdam, Valencia, Bratislava, München and so on. In these cities I noticed so much noise, rushing people or danger in night. But also I saw a lot of things concentrated in one space. And when I compared them to my little town I am so thankful for where I am living. However, every time I was abroad I met great people; for example during a youth exchange in Ommen, in The Netherlands, which opened my eyes, and made me realise that I have to work on my language skills. But the feeling of coming back home, to my little town, is the best I can feel. In my little town in the heart of Slovakia I always feel safe. I like that people know, help and support each other. The most beautiful thing is when the whole town meets at the hockey ice stadium and everybody holds hands together. I always get goose bumps in my whole body when I see that. In my town there is always a family atmosphere, on the contrary to big cities where there are so many people. But on the other hand, work options in my town are not that vast, people don’t earn so much money so they have to travel far away from home for a better life. For this reason, one day I want to leave to some big city for study and work possibilities. Nowadays, a lot of young people leave their homes and look for better life in a bigger city or even abroad. And so do I. Becuse we want to feel how it is to have so many options available in one place. For example free time activities, studies and night life. In conclusion I just want to say that it’s not posible to say where is better to live. It is important that we are happy where we are. If we feel safe and satisfied that’s really an answer to a happy life. Some people love a hectic life and being surrounded by noises and stimulus, others instead, love a silence and and calm environment. So don’t compare it, just live where your heart wants to and enjoy life. #choices #differences #followyourheart

I was 19 when, even tought i was already in a relationship, one of those that fills your heart, makes you feel butterflies in your stomach, one of those that overwhelms you and makes you dream, I met someone who caught my attention. I don’t know how it is possible, I don’t know what exactly happened, I swear the love I felt and that I still feel is something that i can’t explain. A love of the great ones, of those who can make immense turns but then they always return from where you left them, a love to which you know you belong and you know that it belongs to you. We have grown together, he has been always present , in the most beautiful and the most worst moments of my life. Chaotic and a bit crazy but also wise and thoughtful, even after years together he always managed to surprise me and he never left me alone. But one day in February, the universe made me meet his eyes. Those gray eyes kidnapped me. I used to look and loose myself in the blue soul of those who had always been beside me but this time not, for a moment my heart had no one else in it but him. Like the law of physics, opposites attracted (action-reaction). Serious, straight to the point but also very kind, he overwhelmed my madness, my being always in a hurry, my tendency to neglect myself. So after a few months I decided to leave my first love and to throw myself into this new experience, in what seemed to be the beginning of something big, something important, something for life. And so on September 1st, 2018 I decided to leave my first love, Rome and i moved to Ommen, in the Netherlands. And here I am, after a year telling you what it was, what it is and what I hope will be my life in a country that has now become home. A year ago, for the first time in my life I took a plane alone, two and a half hours of travel, I left Rome crying, with the knowledge that I would be far away, far from what was my reality, my safe place , my friends and my family, with some packets of pasta and my ever-present coffee in my suitcase. It was not easy, I strongly believe that it takes courage to leave everything ,to go to a place you don’t know, where you know you won’t speak your language, there won’t be the people you’re used to, that warmth and that Italian love where you grew up between mom and the Colosseum. There is an Italian saying which reads: “whoever leaves the old road for the new one knows what he looses but does not know what he finds”. And I have to admit it: I found myself. I spent the first two weeks crying, on a mattress that didn’t have my shape, which wasn’t mine. Afraid to be alone, and not being able to communicate and make others understand what kind of person I was. I spent the first few nights in my house, with guys from countries all over Europe, countries of which I didn’t even know existed. I spent a year in which for the first time in my life I cooked for myself, I washed my clothes, sometimes with the risk of make my loved hoodies of colors and sizes that didn’t belong to me. For the first time in my life I took walks in the forests and instead of complaining about how tired i was, I only enjoy myself and the wonderful nature I found here. I went from a big city like Rome to a small town in the middle of nowhere, three supermarkets, a place to play billiards, and few restaurants, that’s all. it will have been magic, the case or maybe simply the fact that here it is completely different from where I come from and that here you can connect with your soul and the person that you really are, that I would never go away from this place. It’s unbelievable how, from feelig like a foreigner now for me this is home, this is where I’m building a future and where I want to create my life and have my successes. I feel that in the future this country will give me a lot, that all the kindness, goodness of spirit and beauty that is here will support my growing personally and professionally. And even if sometimes I will send a kiss in the wind to my first love, it will be the same wind that will make the mills of my new love turn. #love #countrylove #nostalgia #reborn

I was 7 years old; at that time I was used to scream my friend’s name from the balcony, and we would have met to play soccer on the street. We played so much, all together in front of the house. I still live in a very small town in northern Italy and till a few years ago, that was my safe place, the town were I was born, grown, and were I have my own identity, where I am Federico. When I was 18 I took part in my first Erasmus exchange in Spain. I still remember how anxious I was about the plane: I had no idea how take one. Just during this year I took 11 flights. What has changed then? Well, I simply got to know the world a bit more, but let’s start from the beginning. I was born in Andezeno, a little town on the hills of Turin (Italy), I studied here until high school, which I did in a town nearby. Then, when university time came, I had to move to the city, to Turin. In the meantime I started to travel thanks to the Erasmus+ projects, and it quite changed my perspective of life: airports, train stations, metropolis, undergrounds, different languages, different cultures, nightlife and much more. The world is alive, I learnt so many things, I met hundreds of people, but I suddenly became “one of the many”. In Andezeno, where I still live, I know everybody and everybody knows me, I always find someone to talk to when I walk the dog, I have a house and I have neighbours, I know all the streets, all the spots with the best view, I know where all my ex-classmates live. I am a person with an identity. I am Federico. At the same time, the town where I live is too tight-fitting for me right now. Whenever we want to do something different we need to move, I can’t meet new people and new cultures. It’s starting to get “boring”. What should I do then? Keep living here, moving to the city, moving abroad? I have no answer for that right now. The truth is that there are pros and cons for all of these situations, there’s not a perfect one, but probably a best one for the different stages of life. Surely, what happened is that the small reality, the small town gave me firm values, but the experiences out of it enriched me so much, they let me know the world a bit more and they kicked me out of my comfort zone, out of my safe place. #comfortzone #knownreality #whereto

Both in cities and villages we are surrounded by people, humans are such social creations in most cases. But does in mean that in both cases we are a part of a community? Me, as a countryside girl from a small village could not imagine to not belong to somewhere, being anonymous , being not well known by my neighbours, but since I moved to a town, I realised, not everybody thinks like the way I did. In the village there was a huge secure. We know, which house is whose. Where did we have to go when we wanted to eat the best apple in the whole village. We knew which is the best door to knock on if I want to play soccer. We knew, we can easily go in without ringing the bell, just to surprise others. We knew about all the relationships, gossips. News where spreading around faster than it does now, in the time of the internet. Living there could be compared to a reality show, and it would be reasonable because of the mentioned aspects. But also we were really solidary. It seemed normal that we help to the old people as youngsters, we visited each other in case of an illness, we went to the funeral of every people who used to be a part of our community. We talked to everyone with curiosity. We were there for each other because we were from the same village- and it was fundamental. It all seems fairy tale, but here comes the question. Why do people leave these areas then? The answer is as simply as it is: The lack of possibilities. The lack of earning more money, to live on a higher life-standard. The lack of being in an impressive environment. The lack of following our passions, to do the sport we want to, to study what we are interested in. And here I am. I am living in a diversity just as social and cultural and religious. I earn much more money I ever could in the village. I study at university, I go to pubs, exhibitions and so on. But I have no clue, who are my neighbours, where to turn for the greatest apple of the city, and who are the ones who are opened to help, and on which door do I have knock if I want to play soccer with someone. And after leaving I realised what was the one, why it was worth living in a village for me: Belonging to the community. #possibilities #challenges #choices