duminică, 2 martie 2008

Words are not enough


You don’t know me and most probably you are never going to meet me. But in order to understand and believe what I want to make you feel, you have to think for a moment about the happiest person you have ever met. Think as hard as you can, and understand that this is how I feel when I am writing these words. Sharing with you my story is helping me remember three of my most beautiful years of my life.

Three years ago I wanted to spice-up my life. I was already studying for three years, this was my forth year in Computer Engineering. I wanted something more and I wanted it to be special, really special.

I joined AIESEC with a clear idea in my mind: to go abroad for a traineeship. It was a quite simple and straightforward idea. But then my first conference came, Local Preparation Seminar, somewhere at Vatra Dornei. I was surrounded by fifty young minds, all of them belonging to good people. Talking with them I started to discover things that I would like to do, and things that I needed to do.

As soon as possible I started doing some of those things. First, it was being part of a project involving foreign students. They were teaching in high schools in Iasi. I was part of the team that was taking care of their daily life. I did that for three months, from those three months I won three friends: Astrid and Eefje from The Netherlands, and Stefan from USA.

Time was passing by and I was attending trainings, conferences and meetings. Those kinds of events that add something to your personality and consequently make people say “that is a fine human being”.

In September 2005, I was administered my biggest test: organizing a conference for 130 people, from which 25 where former members of AIESEC. I had a team of five people, which I coordinated in order to make everything work out smoothly. It didn’t. It couldn’t have been perfect. After a week of sleeping only a few hours a night, nobody can do things perfectly. But the experience was mind-blowing. In a few days I found out so many things about me, that it literally changed my view on the world and my life. I found out the answer to the question: “Who am I?”.

Building on that answer, I worked hard in order to make my dreams become a reality. I went to an international conference in Lithuania to test my newly found ideas. After being part of a team with people from twelve countries for seven days and receiving true feedback from them I was sure that I was on the right track.

So, I finally went on to fallow my dream to see the world. I left for a one year traineeship to The Netherlands. I spend one year in a great company, doing programming. I learned about how Dutch people are and I learned about how I am around them. I was surrounded by AIESEC members in The Netherlands and by my dear friends from The Netherlands. Remember Astrid and Eefje?

It all finalizes with my most honest conviction that I wouldn’t be so proud of myself if it weren’t for the people, trainings, conferences, and opportunities AIESEC provided me.

I am at the moment exactly were I want to be. I am happy.

“Words are not enough”, I say again. Come and live it for yourself!

One proud member of AIESEC Iasi,
Mihaela

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