Evelina's story about an adventure with Erasmus+ internship

Internship in YEAR OF THE X or some steps toward “true me”:

About the place.

After spending 5 months in Portugal, the paradise of good weather and smiling people, I’ve realized that south countries’ style of living is not what I would love to adapt. I’ve enjoyed that so much, but the same time I’ve always been missing my well-planned routine and strict deadlines for projects, that’s why for my internship I’ve decided to go to Germany (Munich), well known for its perfect education system and well created working conditions. Nevertheless, I’ve been visiting Munich a couple of times before, from the very first day as a citizen it surprised me with its incredible city rhythm, which is really hard to feel being a traditional tourist. This is a moving and very green city. Cyclists and runners take a really important role making this city charming and if you want to become one of them, you should know one main rule while cycling - you always have to take a right side of a path based on a direction you go. I’ve faced some pretty risky, but comic situations till I’ve got all this. Thanks God, I didn’t make any accidents which happens pretty often for beginners. Of course, Munich fascinates by its majestic buildings and a landscape of Alps, which you can see fairly clear on sunny days. Smiling and active people, deep Bavarian traditions and inspiring nature is everything you need to feel happiness around. 

About the idea.

Here in Munich, I’ve joined a startup called Year of the X. It’s a community of innovators and diverse thinkers who are willing to take risks in order to make an impact on the world rather then traditional event organizing company. Its’ core values are diversity and intimacy and they try to help move our society to the next level with more integrated mindsets and stronger ties to the community. Year of the X runs different kind of events - digital innovation festivals, innovational thinking retreats and inside companies’ workshops. I’ve got a chance to be a part of a team organising the biggest of our events - Year of the Monkey, last autumn in Hamburg and Year of the Rooster, which just took a place in Munich, this April. The format of a festival is one day, divided to 3-4 main streams (stages) where we have inspirational talks and active workshops ruined by speakers from around the World. Year of the X has an incredible idea for its’ branding, which was the main reason, for me as a graduate of Creative industries to join them. Every year, it changes its name, theme and spirit based on Chinese horoscope. This makes this event to be totally exceptional, because every time we base our content on the spirit that animal of the year spreads. For example, Year of the Monkey - was about creativity, about crazy, unbelievable ideas and about reaching happiness, because monkey is a cheerful and playful animal who is curious to try everything. This year we have - Rooster’ year. He is brave, straight thinking, full of energy, breaking rules and focusses on execution, that’s why this year we had our content based on how to fight the obstacles, how to build a strong personality, how to become a doer, rather than speaker. Based on the spirit of the animal, we also create a creative concept for each festival. For example, this year we had an old American vintage farm there - with real hay, huge tractor and even alive roosters.

About the internship.

As I mentioned before, I was expecting to join a perfectly running, on German rules based company, but I’ve proved the fact that startups have their small captivating mess even in Germany. Being honest, its’ small disorganized processes were irritating me at the beginning, but after some time I’ve really started enjoying being a part of it, because it gave me an incredible freedom to reach my goals and find myself. With joining a company as a graphic designer, I’ve expanded my profile - to web and stage designer, social media manager and a creative strategist. The most challenging and interesting tasks were to create a creative concept for Year of the rooster, to develop and launch a new website for Year of the X, to create a new brand for one of our events - Always Ohmmm, and of course to design festival stages and creative experiences and many many more. The opportunity to try all this and to actually have the chance to implement ideas inspired by me let me move so far to the decisions what I exactly want to do in my nearest future. Also, there is an aspect I can’t let unmentioned. I divide students into two types - the ones who already know the career path they will go and the searchers. In my opinion it is more valued to join a startup having a clear vision what you can do or what is your goal, then you get a real opportunity fully to run experiments, to try out new ideas and to have your voice on every decision your company takes. Without defining your profile you may easily get lost, so it’s better to join a huge company where you can see a clear work flow, well-planed operations and team members’ profiles, which could help you to make a decision.

About me and you.

I think that every person who is eager to reach its personality altitude just must have living abroad experience on board. This opens your minds, spreads the field of view, shows the diversity of cultures and, of course, makes you an independent and strong person. I have to admit, that apart of the exceptional career direction, which my university gave to me I appreciate the most the possibility to study and join an internship abroad. I could never afford it by myself, so I take it as incredible life opportunity for which I feel super grateful. So, if you are still doubting about applying for ERASMUS, better think that somewhere there is a huge adventure waiting for you, and only because you’re afraid to leave your comfort zone, you may miss it. Don’t ever dare to do that, if you really want to become the person you actually dream about. I feel like I made at least some huge steps toward my “true me”.

Evelina Giedrytė
Did her internship in "Year of The X" startup (Germany)