ESN LT Alumni months ago has presented an initiative under the name success story. 1st  of it was told by present ESN LT Alumni Head Coordinator Julius Zaburas. Today is time to listen to another important person in ESN Lithuania's history. Let us to present you - Giedrė Gelšvartaitė, former president of ESN Lithuania, Head OC of the international Summer Camp'11 and much more. So here you go: her success story.

“You are one of 6 milliard people in the world, you won’t become successful by accident”, don’t remember who told me that, but it made me clear - I have to do something.

So it started back in 2008, I decided to go to Erasmus program. All my life I was very excited about traveling and exploring, the word INTERNATIONAL sound magical for me and I knew there are much more in it than just the meaning of different countries.

That time I chose Italy and of course I was very happy because of that, I got to know and experience one of the greatest ESN sections - ESN Padova, they were really hard working team, a great example and a perfect place to get to know Erasmus spirit from all sides.

All my life I had this crazy feeling that I need to do more, that somebody needs me and I need to be useful otherwise it is not interesting to live, but I never knew how and what to do. And there in Italy I finally realized the meaning of the word – Volunteer.  So when I came back I knew I had to do something here, we already had ESN started in 2 cities – Vilnius and Siauliai and something like this going on in Kaunas. From the first day I knew I have to join them and help them create something amazing.

I met some really wonderful people who were thinking the same, that moment I knew these people are the group who is going to do a very good job here and I have to be a part of them.

I remember our first official ESN meeting, we all gathered together for a coffee drink and one girl of us, was just back from the meeting in the international office, so she brought us news: “guys we need to elect the president”. The first election, it went fast and was so funny, someone just said: “does everyone agree that our president will be Giedre”, and everyone said YES, rose their cups, congratulated me and we continued the evening. It was easy for them, but for me I knew that I just got a great responsibility, I have a perfect team, we have got to do something here.

I was really proud of our team and our work. I can honestly say we did a good job. For me the basic thing for first year was to build a big team, I concentrated on motivation seminars, team building, and making the national group stronger and bigger.

After one year we already had much more sections in Lithuania, international level got to know us and we did projects that really rocked it.

After one year I went to international level, don’t get suspicious, this time I was elected with all the rules. And here I was also very successful because once again a got a good and strong team. The most interesting part for me in ESN was always the national level, because the people I met here were always able to do something special, we were small and we wanted to get big, so this is what we were working for.

Not even we managed to raise the quality, become strong, but also to organize some international events, which was also complimented by other countries.

So now I am retired, in ESN words I joined the alumni team, I knew that these years for me were enough because I know that I left ESN in a great hands, we all are different and we all have different understanding of the actions that should be taken, but we all have the same dream and the same goals.

This entire success story wasn’t just me, it was the team that I had, those people who did something incredible, and they still keep doing this, I am very proud of all of them, including myself.

One very smart person once told me: “if you see that you won’t reach your dream, don’t change the dream change the actions you make”. I think this is what we were doing, we had same dream but different actions in our minds, putting them all together and sharing them helped us get closer to the dream.

I was very successful and I still am, and these 3 letters ESN that changed my life, wasn’t just the place to do something it was a place of strong motivated hard working and creative people that taught me a lot of things, that helped me be successful and showed me what can be done while working together.

Always believe in others, no one ever did big things alone, help the others and they will help you reach your dreams, chose the right actions.

written by ESN LT Alumni Club