At the beginning of last school year, my school announced I had to do an internship for the summer of 2026. That was no new thing for me, since I had done one the summer before, too. However, when I looked forward to spending my entire break in some office again, I found that idea rather daunting. I had waited so long for summer, anxiously awaiting to experience new things, see the world and meet friends.

When I realized I would have to work, I came up with a plan. Why not combine the two aspects? I decided to go to Slovenia. I wanted to get to know my second culture a little better, experience the country and maybe even learn some of the language again. While looking for an organization, I came across Moja Mavrica. From what I saw on Instagram and their website, it seemed open, welcoming and creative. It felt like a place where I could actually meet people and experience something rather than simply spend my summer sitting in an office. So I decided to give it a chance.

The beginning

When I arrived at Moja Mavrica, I honestly did not know what to expect. I was used to internships where you were given a task, completed it and then waited for the next one. Here, I was given much more freedom to decide what I wanted to work on.

At first, that freedom was a little overwhelming. There were moments when I was unsure whether my ideas made sense or whether I was doing enough. But I gradually learned that I did not have to know everything from the beginning. I could try something, get feedback, change it and try again. Somewhere along the way, I stopped feeling like I was simply helping with other people’s work and started feeling like I was actually creating something myself.

Something that mattered to me

The topic I chose to work on was gender-based violence. It was already important to me and connected to my diploma project at school, so being able to explore it further during my internship felt especially meaningful.

The more I researched, the more complicated the topic became. Sometimes it was difficult to take in so much information, but it also made me want to understand it better. Turning my research into workshops was a completely new experience for me. I had to learn how to take something I cared about and make other people care about it, too. It was not always easy, but seeing an idea slowly turn into something real was incredibly rewarding.

The people

As much as I enjoyed the projects, I think the people are what made the internship what it was. Working with people from different backgrounds and generations gave me perspectives I could not have learned from a textbook. I learned a lot from them, both professionally and personally.

And it was not always serious. Our morning meetings sometimes went completely off track, lunch breaks often became the best part of the day, and there was always time for a conversation or a laugh. Those little moments made the internship feel less like something I had to do and more like somewhere I actually wanted to be.

Looking back

When I think about what I am taking home with me, there are obviously things I learned that I can put into practice in the future. But I think the more important things are harder to describe.

I learned to trust my own ideas a little more. I learned that feeling confused does not necessarily mean that I am failing. Sometimes it just means that I am doing something new.

I also learned that work can be serious and meaningful without having to feel miserable. There can be deadlines and responsibilities, but there can also be conversations that last too long, lunch breaks that make the day better and people you genuinely enjoy being around.

And now that it is over, that is exactly what I am going to miss.

I will miss having to constantly use my head, questioning things and figuring out how to turn an idea into something real. But more than that, I will miss the people. I will miss the openness, the conversations, the little moments during the day and the feeling that I could simply walk in with an idea and see where it took me.

I came to Slovenia because I wanted to find a way to combine work with experiencing something new. I wanted to learn more about a part of my background, meet new people and have a summer that felt different.

I did not expect that, by the end of it, the hardest part would be leaving.