by Chhum Chanrachana
I wrote my first article introducing myself to the Voices of Youth readers a couple of weeks ago. Now, this is the last article to mark the end of the program. I remember clearly how nervous I was while walking into the interview room because I really wanted to join the program; and how excited I was when my first article was finally posted on the VoY website.
I believe my fellow VoY trainees have already written about how great this program is. Yes, it is! I totally agree with all of them. The twelve weeks went by in a blink of an eye. It might be short, but there were a lot of lessons, advice and feedback that I received, along with many good memories during the whole program.
The more articles I wrote for the program, the more motivation I had in starting my own blog. I had the opportunity to spend time with people who have the same passion in blogging as me. Frankly, before I started the program, I only focused on how writing from a academic perspective, but blogging is way more than that.
At VoY, I was able to reflect on all the issues I was interested in. So far, I have written about topics ranging from social to environmental issues. One of the best moments I had, was when a lot of people read and commented on my article about the use of plastic bags and how they also wanted to tackle the issue.
Everyone, especially my mentor Ms. Sorita, made my experience with the Voices of Youth program even more special. During these 12 weeks, I received a lot of encouragement and comments from her regarding my articles. Though I made a lot of mistakes in my writing, that didn’t discourage me from continuing to write due to the understanding and positive attitude of my mentor and everyone in the program.
Also, I have read a few articles written by my friends at VoY which were all amazing. They wrote about different issues that they are concerned about. I could learn a lot by reading from their articles, such as their writing styles and the way they addressed the issues. Such a self-learning environment gave me a lot of positivity and motivation in writing more.
It’s time to say goodbye…
At the end of the program, we were asked to draw a picture to describe our experience and feeling toward the program. At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything in particular to draw, until I sat down and wrote the reflection about VoY. There were just so many great things that I couldn’t fit into a piece of paper.
I hope the next VoY trainees would have a great experience with Voices of Youth like I did. If any of you are planning to apply for this program, please don’t wait until you become a great writer because this program will transform you into one! 😉
Views expressed here are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of UNICEF.
