Peace is not just the absence of war. It is a process made of encounters, dialogue, and the ability to live together with what is different from us. It means building, day after day, relationships that go beyond linguistic, cultural, and social barriers, turning differences into bridges rather than walls. In this sense, the Erasmus experience becomes a unique school of peace.
Every student who leaves for Erasmus carries habits, identity, and memories, and suddenly finds themselves living in a new city, surrounded by different cultures and ways of thinking. At first it can feel disorienting, but that is where interculturality begins: cooking together with flatmates who speak other languages, exchanging expressions between classes, learning to respect traditions you never knew before. Peace takes shape in these small, everyday things, when you discover that behind an unfamiliar language or a dish you’ve never tasted, there is a world worth listening to.
Erasmus is a real laboratory of coexistence. Not everything is easy: there can be misunderstandings, moments of difficulty, even small conflicts. But by learning to face them, to find solutions together, we realize that peace is never something given once and for all, but a balance built through empathy, patience, and openness. And what is learned during mobility does not remain confined to the personal experience: every student returns home with a different perspective on the world, ready to carry a message of dialogue and respect that becomes a seed of change in their communities.
Today, while our present is marked by conflicts both near and far that seem to turn back the clock of history, reflecting on the meaning of peace is more urgent than ever. Looking at the Erasmus experience reminds us that a different model of coexistence exists: one built on inclusivity, on mutual understanding, on the belief that meeting others is not a threat but an enrichment.
The hope is that one day, under the banner of inclusivity carried by the Erasmus message, there will be no more wars to fight, only differences to celebrate.