Conference Reflection

So, I’m back from the AIESEC national conference. The past 10 days has been an exciting time of massive sleep deprivation, with around 4-6 hours sleep every night. Surprisingly, my body has been able to cope. I'm a person who needs the recommended 8 hours of sleep a day, so I’ve even surprised myself by being able to operate on so little sleep. But I guess the lack of sleep has had an adverse effect on my immune system. I'm falling sick! Nvm, just had a marathon 15 hours sleep catch up last night. I've never slept so much before. haha. Hopefully, that'll put me back on the path to recovery.

Anyway, I know that a lot of ppl haven’t heard of AIESEC. I know most of my friends heard about AIESEC for the first time when I mentioned it. So, what is this thing called AIESEC? Well, AIESEC is the largest student organisation in world and their main goal is to ‘provide an international platform for young people to discover and develop their full potential so as to have a positive impact on society.' The AIESEC network includes 23,000 students in 100 countries in over 1100 universities across the globe. It holds such prestige and powerful sway over international organisations like the United Nations that AIESEC representatives are invited to the United Nations to give their views. Many country presidents, CEOs of large corporations, and political leaders are AIESEC alumni, which gives credence to its ability to develop leaders. Honestly, I'm surprised that AIESEC isn't widely known in Australia, even though it's massive in other countries. This is a great pity, as I’ve been really impressed with what AIESEC has to offer. Just judging from the caliber of delegates at the conference, one can see that so many of them are confident, eloquent, friendly, and leaders in their own right.

There are many weird things that occurs during conferences: random chants and roll calls every morning (whereby every local AIESEC committee, state manager, and member committee has a chant/song just to verify that they are present – this alone takes 30 mins), line dancing (whereby at certain times throughout the day, all 230 delegates stand up and start dancing to songs just to get our energy levels up again), sledging (which is just a summary of all the shenanigans, hookups, and scandals that occurred the previous night), partying, random punishments (if you lose your name tag – I had mine stolen twice!), beer skulling (which is serious enough that rules for it are written in the constitution), and having to speak and decipher many acronyms. I guess these are reasons enough for some ppl to call it a cult! Haha. At least, it’s not as big of a shock to me as I’ve experienced some of these traditions at IH. But I guess these are all part of the rich culture, history and tradition that's part and parcel of what defines AIESEC as an organisation. It kinda makes everyone feel like one big family. Imagine going to say, an International Congress in Turkey, and being to dance to the same line dance, it just does so much to make one feel at home.

Anyway, my take on past week and a half. Honestly, prior to the conference, i wasn't exactly looking forward to going for it. I mean, I struggle to even wake up for classes, and now I had to wake up at 8am in the morning and only get to go home at 1-2am in the morning. I wasn't looking forward to having to meet many new ppl, having to be polite, smile and introduce yourself countless times, having to remember names. I wasn't looking forward to having to sit down and listen to seminars and speeches for hours at end. And I'm not a big fan of writing down your goals on a piece of paper, or what u want to have achieved in 10 years, what your aspirations are, etc. I’ve always thought that it’s utter bullshit how merely writing down your goals on a paper can help you achieve them. For me, I don’t really learn much from all the theoretical stuff that is presented. I mean, telling someone that you need this quality, or that quality, logically isn’t going to do much.

100+ hours later over the past week of having been cooped up at St. Mary's, and i will admit that i'm extremely glad that i did attend conference. I’ve made some friends, so much so that I’ve been added on Facebook literally the next day, and I’ve learned so much more about AIESEC during the week compared to the rest of the year. So much happened during the week that it's impossible to explain everything in detail. But i'll list the salient points of things that i've learned and taken away from the conference.

I didn't particularly have a sudden eureka moment from any one of the sessions, or from an explicit lesson taught at the conference, but a combination of just absorbing everything that's going on around you, interacting with ppl, and paying (sometimes partial) attention to whoever is speaking, and just feeling the overall vibe, has really encouraged me to pursue my dreams, to achieve the impossible, and to step out of my comfort zone.

The theme of the conference was ‘Momentum’, which is the driving force that causes an object to continue moving. The message contained being that we need to pick ourselves up, and challenge ourselves to achieve the impossible, to have a goal and vision, to have the drive and initiative to attain something, to not be contended with where we currently are, and when we take steps to actually achieve what we want, the momentum will constantly keep us going. It is the first step that is always most difficult.

One important point that resounded with me is the challenge to ‘step out of your comfort zone.’ Most ppl would agree that I’ve always been a pretty laid back and easy going person. Some describe me as always smiling. And that’s true, as I’m not really much of a worrier (which might not be such a good thing), it takes quite a lot for me to get angry, and I’m always happy with everything. But what I learned was that it is only when you step out of your comfort zone, when you take risks, and take a leap into the unknown – it is only then when you’ll grow. True, it may be extremely difficult, but it is only then when you learn to overcome your fears, and to discover your personal limits and boundaries.

Another thing which struck me was the impact of a leader. Leadership only brings you so far. If power and wealth goes to ones head, being a leader in a high up position making bad decisions and giving out detrimental orders would be a bad thing. I guess that's why AIESEC constantly reiterates the concept of creating a 'positive change agent', as opposed to merely a leader. A positive agent would in the corporate world exhibit qualities of corporate social responsibility, something which unfortunately is totally lacking in today's society.

During the conference, a poignant moment for me occurred during the transition of leadership. People who have dedicated the entire past year to work full time in AIESEC, and having to give it up and move on. In their farewell and reflection speech they described their experiences, the things they’ve learned over the past year, and some said that they didn’t know how they were gonna handle moving on from AIESEC, which has been such an integral part of their lives during the past few years. Emotions were evident, tears flowed, and it was very touching. It kinda inspires you to also try to achieve what they have achieved, knowing that the hard work and sacrifice will pay off in the end. Also, during the last day of conference, when everyone just stood in a circle, and random ppl started speaking up and thanking someone who had made an impact in their lives, some over a period of time, others just in the one week that they’ve met them. And ppl were crying just with the magnitude of what someone else has done for them. I’m really not much of an emotional person, but just then, I was really so moved and touched.

I personally believe that AIESEC provides a wonderful platform for any student to prepare themselves for the real world, to develop themselves personally, to gain some leadership skills along the way, and to maybe even embark on an exhange program to a foreign country. I have no idea what next year holds for me, and I wouldn’t discount the possibility of going on an exchange (just maybe, to China? =P) And i'm regretting that I'll only have a few more months in AIESEC and wouldn't have time to gain the full experience. I wish I had joined in first year. Thanx to Veron though for pulling me into AIESEC though, and i would encourage anyone else who has still has time in uni to give it a try next year. You never know how much you might like it.

Anyway, I'll post pictures and videos in the near future.