Being halfway through my Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs experience feels different from what I expected. At the beginning everything was new, stimulating, and slightly disorienting. Now there is more clarity, but also more awareness of how complex building something of your own really is.
The first weeks were mostly about observing and understanding the rhythm of the host organization. I tried to listen carefully, to understand how decisions are made, how projects are structured, and how ideas are transformed into proposals. Gradually, I moved from just watching to actually contributing. I started participating in brainstorming sessions, reviewing parts of project drafts, and discussing possible strategies for future initiatives. That shift — from observer to contributor — was important for me. It made the experience feel real.
There have been moments of doubt. Sometimes I wondered if I was asking the right questions, or if I was learning fast enough. Starting an NGO is a big responsibility, and seeing how much work is behind even a single funded project can be intimidating. Budget planning, coordination with partners, reporting, communication — it is much more detailed than it looks from the outside. But instead of discouraging me, this complexity has made my idea more concrete. It forced me to move from an abstract vision to practical thinking.
The mentoring relationship has been central so far. What I appreciate most is the honesty in our conversations. We speak openly about challenges, about mistakes, about sustainability — not only financial sustainability, but personal sustainability as an entrepreneur. I am learning that passion is important, but structure and discipline are what make a project last.
Professionally, I feel that the program’s objectives are being met. I am developing technical skills in project design and organizational management, but I am also gaining something less visible: confidence. I am starting to trust my own perspective more, and I feel more prepared to take responsibility for my future NGO.
If I could plan something for the second half of the exchange, it would be to take on even more concrete responsibility. I would like to lead a small part of a project cycle independently — maybe drafting a section of a proposal or coordinating a specific task — to test myself in a more hands-on way. I think that practical ownership is the next step in my growth.
Halfway through this journey, I do not feel transformed in a dramatic way. Instead, I feel evolving, but I think it’s more realistic, in daily work and in honest conversations.