Welcoming and being welcomed
My name is Micol, I am almost 31 years old and I have known ASCS for more than 12 years. I came into contact with this wonderful association in 2012 when, curious about the world and eager for an experience that would challenge me a bit and allow me to become aware of my privileges and what it meant to make myself available, I decided to look for someone who would give me the opportunity to leave for a faraway place.
Thus I found Father Ben, I am aware of the immense good fortune to have been able to know him in his foresight and understanding of others, Manu, incredibly welcoming and with such a good look, and Luci, of disarming sweetness and generosity, ready to accompany me along my path.
I had just finished high school and was going to start college in September, so I had just one month: a tiny and derisory amount of time to even think about being useful to someone, but it was a crucial growth time for me and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I received.
I left for La Paz, Bolivia, in late July. I was charged with excitement, confident that I would return with a fresh look when I returned and hopeful that my presence so fleeting would not be a nuisance. Here, I have never felt so welcomed as I did during that month at 4,000 meters on the other side of the world-I hope everyone I met during those days knows that I carry them in my heart.
The impact for me was strong, when I came back I felt a little lost because I had realized that what ASCS does is something that is really needed and I, with my study and life choices, was going in a different direction.
I started and continued my studies and then work in the pharmaceutical field, I no longer had enough time to leave for a new experience far away, but I never stopped being connected to ASCS in the initiatives it carries out in the Milan area: first with “The World at Home” and then with the “Afya” project, through which I have had the opportunity to meet wonderful people and volunteers who always remind me to have an open gaze toward the other.
To ASCS in addition to “best wishes” for these first 20 years, I want to say “thank you” for giving new perspectives to me and for “dreaming the dreams of others” every day, always finding ways to help each person realize them.