A small transparent snowflake, fluttering from side to side, gently landed on my palm. I was sitting by the open window and listening to the silent melody of falling snow. It had been a long time since this fair-haired winter guest had pleased our region with its presence. If I'm not mistaken, the last time I managed to put on skis was around 2017, and that's more than ten years ago! Well then, an unexpected snowfall is a good reason to be nostalgic about irrevocably lost youth...

I take out the guitar, shake the dust from its waist and ... "How many years have passed, the wires hum about the same things, the planes wait for the same..." God, as if a time machine carries me back to that distant 2008, to the starting point of my adult life. How I, with timid steps, approached the doors of IEC, pulled the handle... Back then I could not even imagine what this cherished door would lead me to! What I felt at that moment—you cannot put it into words! It was a cocktail of the ripest and boldest hopes, seasoned with a powder of anxious expectation, adorned with a cherry of curiosity. I still feel that taste on my lips, it's simply impossible to forget...Those who have been in my place will understand me! Behind that door awaited a dream, no – a DREAM, bright and cherished, destined to come true...A dream that forever changed me and made me who I am now.

The wail of a siren outside brings me back to the future. I walk to the window, breathe in the fresh night air. It's hard to believe that so many years have already passed! Surrounding me now are not the faceless gray nine‐story buildings, but fashionable skyscrapers reaching for the sky, glittering in the night lights with their mirrored surfaces. Much has changed since then. Laptops have become even thinner, phones even smaller, cars even faster, and there are even more nuts in Snickers). Globalization has reached its apogee with the introduction of a single world currency, which has significantly eased life for travelers and counterfeiters. Robots have displaced 80% of human manual labor, leaving people greater space for self-realization. Space exploration is advancing by giant strides - now the human footprint is not only on the Moon, but also on Mars and Venus.

Perhaps the most important achievement of modernity is the cure for AIDS, invented a year ago by Russian scientists. So the plague of the 20th century is now over, and the world breathed a sigh of relief. The wonders of genetic engineering now allow future parents to plan their child's sex in advance, as well as some of their traits, such as eye color, hair, height.. I hope these achievements will not go too far, otherwise we will face a generation of mass-produced geniuses with model looks. Through cloning it has been possible to resurrect many species of extinct animals and plants. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot! We won the Sochi Olympics with dignity, receiving the largest number of medals and once again proving to the whole world that sport in our country is not dead. But, sadly, our national team still did not become world football champions...

At IEC many new programs have appeared in the meantime, quite bold and very interesting. The most extreme is a journey into the wild forests of the Amazon aimed at connecting with nature and acquiring survival skills in the wild. But the most popular program still remains Work and Travel, which today has covered almost the entire globe. Now you can go to almost any country in the world, depending on your goals and preferences. Also, with the help of IEC you can now host a student from another country who came under the same program.

Yes, it really may seem that a lot has changed. But in reality, this is merely a shell, a shiny wrapper of our life, changing colors, shapes and sizes... And the essence has remained unchanged for many, many years. The wires really do hum about the same things, and our planes wait for the same. Good still fights evil, and we continue to believe that it still wins.. People still search for something, often not knowing what themselves.. We still love, hate, suffer, rejoice... Only the scenery changes. And IEC still gives people a dream, the memories of which even many years later will warm them on cold winter evenings, as it warms me now. And that is the most important thing. After all, the moments given by IEC are priceless: friendly laughter, new meetings, tears of parting, trials and victories, the roar of the ocean, the warmth of beloved hands, a stranger's smile, a spontaneous dance on the beach, the scent of the Motherland...These are the things that really matter and are significant, not some thousands of dollars and iPods brought home. And millions of people will for a long time continue to approach the cherished door at IEC with trepidation to meet their new life behind it, to find themselves on the other side of the Earth, to challenge their fears and doubts. Only it will no longer be us...