The Spanish Team Experience in Play Out!
Let me introduce you to the amazing Spanish team members and their different ways of experiencing Play Out!
Adrián
Hello! I am Adrián and this opportunity was undoubtedly a very enriching experience that has allowed me to expand my horizons. From learning about the far-reaching implications of sport and inclusion to learn more about the LGBTQI+ community, it has allowed me to better understand myself and learn from others. At the same time, I have been able to develop interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. Thanks to this Youth Exchange I have also been able to learn more about other cultures and other perspectives on the world.
Alba
Personally, it has been a challenge because I have never been attracted to going to places where I know I was going to live with so many people for so many days. But I am very glad I went because I have reaffirmed that if you do things well you can always do hat you want to do. Therefore, if I have to sum up this experience in one word, it would be humanity, because they have always taken everyone into account, with their boundaries and their needs. In this way, you can connect and meet wonderful people and get to be able to recharge in their presence.
Veli
Play Out! was about connecting in a deeper level with my values and limits. But also getting to know unique stories from each participant. Each one of us helped build a beautiful and respectful community, where everyone is welcomed. One of my favorite moments was playing badminton with some of the participants. We played without rules and judgement, just to bond and have fun together. After my experience in Play Out!, I am willing to create a similar safe space and inclusive community in my local area. Thank you all for this amazing experience.
Lourdes
Play Out! has been a gift that has arrived at the precise moment, when I most needed it. This journey has allowed me to travel different paths, one of them is the opportunity to be a group leader for two wonderful teams, one of them my Spanish Team, which are noisy and crazy but amazing, warm, joyful and incredibly funny (I love them with my heart and soul). The other one is my Support Care Team, “Wavy Bravy”, where I met this group of young people brave enough to be vulnerable to open to others, to share their experiences and to show their emotions. This has been an incredible gift thet I will take with me forever. We have been there for the group and we have created a beautiful union together, they have allowed me to enjoy helping others and supporting them in their emotional journey, and I will do it also after the project, because they have become a little family for me.
The other path is the journey for myself: I came to Play Out! knowing that I needed to find myself, to reconnect with my body, my emotions, my happiness and my willingness to feel. During these days I was able to find it all, Play Out! got me waking up in the morning with a smile wondering what the day will bring to me, wanting to go for breakfast and see other participants that have become friends, wanting to move, to play, to sing, to laugh and to feel. These emotions have not been in my life for a really long time and Play Out! made me rediscover them and with them, rediscover myself.
I could never say thanks enough.
Carjul
This project has meant reconnecting with my inner child, that little girl who never found a place in teams because she was different, who never felt part of the group. It has been an opportunity to show her (me) that inclusion is possible when we don’t force the rules, when we adapt the game to the possibilities of the people. It reminded me that We, the people, create the rules, and have the power to change them. It’s about values, about if we want as a society to build spaces where queer communities are welcome, not because someone “allows” us, but because we have the same right to be part of sports, to play, to belong.
Cris
Play Out! was more than a need for me, an experience to open myself more and get to meet awesome people and create beautiful memories that will remain in me forever. All of this as well as the knowledge I have gotten in the terms of inclusion and sports have really changed my view in a lot of senses of life and have encouraged me to take a step in my community and fight for a better world in which we are all equal as we were in the project <3
