As I sit in my café waiting to leave with a friend to her uncle’s wedding 2 hours from Tunis, I am thinking about my experience here in Tunisia, the good and the bad, about the bittersweet goodbye that’s coming in a few short days, and what it is that brought me here. Watching two good friends of mine go through their LC’s exchange system on myaiesec.net, it’s very clear to me that, despite not really doing a traineeship, this crazy organization is very much responsible for my 6 months in Tunisia. I never would have applied for a study abroad program here if I hadn’t met the Tunisians I met at an AIESEC conference in Morocco, my first eye-opening experience.
Now, I’m watching a revolution unfold within my own country. In government, there’s hope for a change, a desire to believe that one of our presidential candidates can start our country down a better course. But also, perhaps a bit closer to my heart after all of the work I’ve dedicated (and continue to dedicate), is the other revolution of hope that is taking place within AIESEC US.
When I arrived in Tunisia, as far as AIESEC was concerned, I was pretty burnt out. I had spent a year as LCP, working hard to strengthen my LC, connect it to the international network, and supporting national endeavors to meet similar ends. After all of that, getting away from the politics and the accountability was a welcome vacation. Now, though, after this whole experience I am re-motivated to contribute my time and energy to this organization. What’s happening now is troublesome, but necessary. There are several extremes that are butting heads and achieving the best solution will be challenging, but I know that this will ultimately be beneficial not only for AIESEC US, but also for AIESEC in general.
Almost exactly 1 year ago (1 year and a week to be exact), our previous MCP sent an email at the start of her term to everyone, and she said:
Dreams are meant to be something to yearn for amidst the daily reality that we are faced with, they are not meant to be something that we can easily see or can easily reach, they are the fuel that takes us where we want to go.
AIESEC is a dynamic organization, it is an organization that has been around for over 50 years and has impacted hundreds of thousands of individuals lives.
Today, you are part of AIESEC and you are in a place that so few people will ever have the chance to be, a place where you have access to resources that many people can only dream about, a place where you are able to interact with motivated, driven individuals on a daily basis that inspire you to do more, and a place where you have the ability to directly change someone’s life every day.
Sometimes I think we lose focus on the dream that we are all here in pursuit of, and I think it is really easy to lose sight of that …I cannot wait to see what we achieve over the next two years and throughout everything that we will go through, I want you each to remember that ‘things worth doing seldom come easy’.We are all in for a challenge, but I remember now, more than ever, why I choose to give so much of myself to the work of this organization. There is life outside of AIESEC, there are other ways to achieve similar dreams, but for me I didn’t find those things first, I found AIESEC, and I for one am not ready to give it up. What about you?
Labels: AIESEC
