Sometimes they talk about politics, but other times they talk about music, art, sports, and other fun things that you might be interested in too.
This is so important because a core lesson in our Exploring Peace journey is to try to see things how someone different from you does or to try and see things from the other person’s point of view. In my life, I do this by thinking, how would I feel if that person said or did that to me? This is how we build empathy, another important step along our peacebuilding journey.
Sometimes we don’t agree with another person or are so different from them that it’s hard to see things from their point of view. That’s okay! You don’t have to agree with or even understand someone else to have empathy. Instead, just acknowledging, or telling someone else, that you know their belief is important to them is all you need to do.
Imagine your friend wants to play a different game during recess, but you really want to play your favorite one. Instead of getting mad, you think, maybe they didn’t get to play this game yesterday and that’s why they want to today. Even if you don’t agree, it helps you understand why they feel that way.
With YIHR, students from all over the Balkans – Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Montenegro – get to make friends and share stories with people who come from different backgrounds. Often, they all have different beliefs about what happened in the past. But through these programs, they begin to listen and understand why they are different and how they are the same.
Which also is my favorite part of traveling and living in different countries!
