Apollo11, the greatest journey in the history of mankind started with a countdown, but before that countdown, there was an army of scientists and engineers who were working on it. The most important part came after that countdown, moon landing. Neil Armstrong made his small step on the moon and humanity made its giant leap. It was only fiction in Jules Verne novels and George Millie’s movies, but that fiction was the rocket fuel of the real moon landing. We are always breaking the limits of our imagination and what was our fantasy became a reality that we live and so, my journey through the Access program and what comes after it was like Apollo11 for me. Access helped me in getting to new worlds that were beyond my reach.
I was that shy boy who was afraid of making any kind of contact with his classmates. I could not even see myself fit into the class and participating in activities, but somehow all of that changed when we’re making a gingerbread house as a Christmas activity. Everybody was shy and they could not help making it comfortable. I have thrown the first word ‘hi’. The silence was broken and we began chit-chatting about the gingerbread house, class and how we have applied to the Access program. At the end of that day I have had something very precious and beautiful, friendship.
Class after class my character was developing into something new and different. I mean I have begun stepping out my comfort zone! But the one major development was the conflict resolution project. I have decided to make a game as a project and it was about taking a name of a random person in the class, including the teacher, and writing something that you like about the person something that you do not like and a piece of advice. I was nervous when miss Joanne asked me to play the game with the class, but I was proud when everybody liked the game and it made my relationship with the class stronger. On that day, I believed that anything is possible as long as I want to make it possible.
There is a lot say about the Access program, but do you know that feeling when you have something in your mind and you are. just want to talk about it and when you have the chance to talk about it you just feel that your tongue is tied and you have nothing to say? Well, that happens to me all the time and especially when I have a presentation at school and because of that, I hear everybody speaking about why he is doing that? Is he taking it seriously? But in the Access program, everybody just accepts you for what you are.
My life after the Access program or to be more specific, myself, is something entirely different from what I was before it. It made a leader, a listener and more importantly a dreamer. Next, to learning English, the Access program gives you very valuable lessons, you may not catch them directly, but through the students, teachers, activities and many other countless experiences, you will get something valuable for sure.
So all that I have to say is that the Access program was the countdown of my journey to discover life and to break my limits. I cannot foreshadow what will happen but I am sure that through my journey I will discover what I am capable of and I will be spared my story to make sure that I am not the only one who went out of his comfort zone because great things never came out of comfort zones.
