What’s a Neapolitan used to o’ sole o’ mare o’ core doing in Bremen?
There are many reasons. The first is that I am a bit crazy and impulsive. When I make a decision, I rarely use my head and therefore my reason, for the 99% of the time I rely on chance or follow my instincts. The same instinct that tells me to turn right at a crossroads to find myself in the middle of nowhere, with a dead phone, a bad sense of direction and no idea where I am. In short, you will understand, if you draw the right conclusions, that there’s not much to trust in my instincts. It was it who made me suddenly abandon the university and catapult me into the arms of my only and true love, the circus. In short, although my instinct is often unreliable, it is the impulse that drives me to choose risk and happiness over the certainty and security that comes with it.
The other driving force behind my bold decisions is my stubbornness, which has made me insist on being a circus performer at all costs. It wasn’t so difficult to give up everything and follow my dream because I hadn’t left anything important behind. I felt crushed by my family’s expectations, by my feelings of guilt for failing in what I had invested in and by the knowledge that I did not belong to my city. I also felt suffocated by the narrow-mindedness of my fellow citizens, the social norms and conformity to which everyone seemed to aspire. I needed new air, new ideas with which to feed my mind and to get out of the confinement of the four walls of my room. My dreams were locked in too small drawers and pawing to be able to go out and see the sunlight. I am always hungry for knowledge, there are so many things to learn and see in the world that staying in one place for the little time we have doesn’t make any sense to me.
I saw my first glimpses of light in Turin when I started my first circus school. Finished the school I had a thousand ideas, but not the tools or the knowledge to put them into practice. So, after I got my diploma, I started drawing up a list of possibilities that I could take into consideration to continue doing what I love. One of them was to do a European voluntary circus project. A friend of mine had done a similar experience and spoke very highly of it, so the idea had been tickling my fancy for some time. Every now and then, I peeked at the European exchange portal to see if I was lucky enough to find a similar opportunity.
Fortune knocked on the door in September and now here I am in Bremen doing a project for Circus Jokes, a non-profit organisation that provides educational activities for children and young people. I think you can learn a lot from children and I am grateful to be able to learn from them. I have not regretted embarking on this adventure because it has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people, to develop a different approach to life and to have fantastic experiences. I recommend to all those who feel the need for a change in their life to have a similar experience.
Rita
Rita is hosted on the project “Achieve Recognition Through Social Media”, financed by the European Solidarity Corps and Jugend für Europa.