Saturday morning. It is the last day here in Novi Sad and also the last full day here in Serbia. On Sunday morning at 6:00 I’m going back to Germany.
Today the programme didn’t start until 10:00, which was good because I slept really little badly thanks to five mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Who invented them anyway? They make terrible noises and steal your blood. Anyway, as if I hadn’t already had enough to do during the day, I then spent my night looking for these critters first and slaying them. Correspondingly tired, I later sat down to the first meal of the day. Some of the participants were already leaving and saying goodbye. Partings, especially in such constellations, are always particularly sad to me, because we will never see each other again in this composition in our lives. 25 people from all over Europe.
I arrived at the OPENS around 10:00. There were the last pitches. A woman from Bosnia and Herzegovina told about the situation in her country, that it had never recovered from the war, but that it had long been forgotten in the memory of Europeans. She burst into tears. The lecture was incredibly touching and awakening for all of us.
After a short break, we went back to the expert group. What was most impressive for me was that within a week my project had become so sharpened and solidified. At the beginning, I thought I had everything in the bag. Now it was clear: Now came the important and big questions. At the same time, I now had a good overview of what a successful project application at EU level must look like. And the topic of my project had crystallised and that was very explosive for me. Ultimately, Bright Lights‘ first major international project will revolve around my heartfelt topic, which is also very sensitive and personal at the same time. That was never really my plan. But the longer I worked on the basic structure, the clearer it became to me what my actual intention was and that the original topic was not yet concrete enough. By the way, I’m very sorry that I always beat around the bush here, but as long as nothing has been approved yet, I don’t want to scare any horses.
After the expert groups, there was a final round in which we were all asked to summarise in a few sentences what we took home with us. For me, these were a few things:
- New friendships: I was invited to Portugal by Daniela, a dancer and project planner, and I will definitely accept this invitation.
- New partnerships: I will work with Tom from Belgium on the topic of social inclusion.
- A new attitude towards my surname: Often enough in my life there were people who made fun of my civil surname Tuczek, so I wanted to get rid of it. In Novi Sad I had the chance to work with three wonderful Polish women who encouraged me to keep my surname after my wedding and that Polish roots are something to be proud of.
- A very sharpened project profile
- Motivation: I was by far the youngest participant. With my own organisation, which I had just founded in May and is now already on the road with several European collaborations. All the participants of Incubator+ had repeatedly spoken to me about my energy and that I can do anything. This touched me deeply and strengthened my belief in myself.
- A heart full of sunshine, now sitting on the plane at 6:00 on Sunday morning and knowing exactly what it wants to do in the coming months.
Yours, Anna Lisa