My name is Lucia and I am 26 years old, almost 27. I was born and raised in Pino Torinese, between Turin and Chieri, and currently live in Trento. I work on Italian dialects in the Middle Ages and dream of becoming a teacher in middle or high school. I like people and mountains, and those I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by over the years are beautiful (both the people and the mountains, that is).

I met ASCS in 2017, the summer of my freshman year of college, while participating in the Io Ci Sto camp in the province of Foggia, alongside foreign seasonal workers employed in the tomato harvest. Looking back, that week was a small revolution for me and my first real encounter with the world of human mobility. Upon my return, I was lucky enough to find fertile ground, made up of people who had shared the same experience as me and were eager not to let it fall away, but to make it a testimony and an engine to build awareness in our territories. Thanks to the dreams and vision of these friends, one year after another, projects to raise awareness on the issue of human mobility were born in our home – Chieri and its surroundings. Film, theatrical performances, meetings, debates, workshops in schools. An exercise in active citizenship that has taught me a lot.

When I arrived in Trent, I experienced firsthand the bridge-building power of ASCS. I found some people who for one reason or another were living in Trent, shared their experience with ASCS and wanted to set up something in Trent as well. This led to the opportunity to offer meetings open to citizenship and workshops in schools here as well.

In addition, in recent years, following ASCS proposals, I have had the opportunity to touch the reality of the borders, in Oulx and Trieste, with the camps ConFine e Through. And this summer I returned to the province of Foggia, to walk the miles of sun-baked fields again, to talk about caporalato, dignity, humanity and courageous choices, to meet the stories of those who live this territory.

More Bridges Less Walls showed me a way of being and doing. The way of one who does not give in to pessimism, of one who sees with awareness, yet does not lose the enthusiasm to think possible a more welcoming and more just world, of one who is not afraid of the encounter with the other and how much this may challenge. Of those who choose the style of attention and care, towards people and things. This way of being and doing is for me a powerful magnet, an inexhaustible source of desire to try to get involved myself.

The title I chose for this piece, Growing on a huge tree, comes from a camp activity this summer, a phrase that was casually given to me and that seems to sum up well my experience with ASCS and why I want to continue to be a part of it. The idea of being a small sprout above an immense tree. A tree that offers sap to grow, and a chance to look up.

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