March 1, 2010

This day brings with it the end of an era – it is the official end of my AIESEC career at AIESEC Victoria.  Each term as a VP starts on March 1 and ends on February 28.  This past weekend, the incoming and outgoing teams of AIESEC Victoria planned for the future and came up with a year plan, strategic actions and budgeted to make it happen.  It was so inspirational sitting and discussing our successes in the past year and how the new team can build upon these successes and learn from our mistakes to have a great year for themselves.  I’m excited for the future of AIESEC Victoria.  I have full confidence in this new team.

March 1st brings with it bittersweet memories.  Sweet and sour someone said this weekend.  On the one hand, I’m going to be relieved – no more responsibility and I’m excited to head off into the future and explore new opportunities.  On the other hand, I’m terrified of leaving.  AIESEC was comfortable.  It was (somewhat) predictable.  I have made some amazing friends through the organization here in Victoria and across Canada.  I leave AIESEC with so many fond memories and so so so many accomplishments.

I guess my AIESEC career isn’t completely over yet.  There is still that option of going on an internship.  I only just found a replacement for me so there is still turnover and training over the next month.  Career Fair is happening March 9 – 10 and I’m volunteering.  Then there is Coastal Conference March 26 – 28 in Vancouver where I’ll be facilitating.  So for the next month or so things will be the same, but once April hits, I’ll be back at home – no school, no job, no AIESEC.  Wow things are going to be changing.  I’m excited to get out there and yet I can’t but help look back at the end of this chapter of my life.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on everything that I have accomplished through AIESEC, and I really can’t help but feel that without AIESEC in my life, I probably wouldn’t be who I am today.  I have learned so much about myself and it was really AIESEC that gave me all these opportunities:

• I learned how sales really works and helped work towards raising internships with companies in Victoria.  I also found out that while I could do the work, sales isn’t where I get the most enjoyment.
• I learned that there really is more to human resources than just hiring and firing people.  I gained an appreciation for the different areas of HR and that to make an employer a good employer doesn’t just mean having good HR practices.  It means having everyone in the organization have HR in their minds when making decisions.  I also learned that I really like HR.  I like the interaction and I like making a difference in another person’s life.
• I learned how to work in a team that may be less than functional.  I learned how to work with different personalities.  I learned how to motivate others on my team and how to keep things moving when things got difficult.
• I learned that I will most likely not be going into a career of finance.  While I appreciate all the work they go through, I don’t see myself sitting at a desk and working with numbers day in and day out.  Despite that, I learned how to budget.  I learned how to pay an employee and taxes to the government.  I learned how to write grant requests.  I learned how to report numbers, but most of all I learned how a small business operates financially and I can utilize these skills wherever my career takes me.
• I learned that I love working on events.  I love the satisfaction of finishing a project, giving all that you can give and seeing success and happiness in those that you affect.  I discovered that I enjoy the logistical aspects of organizing something.  I also discovered that I really enjoyed the promotional side of things from website building to video making – and area I’m looking forward to exploring more.
• I met so many people in Victoria, across Canada and around the world that have changed my outlook on life and on the world.  AIESEC has given me the ability to appreciate and learn about the world on a different level.
• … and this is only the beginning – there are so many other things I learned from AIESEC that I can’t even begin to list them all.

The AIESEC logo has words running underneath that read “the international platform that enables young people to explore and develop their leadership potential for them to have a positive impact on society.”  For the longest time these were just words to me, but now looking back at all my AIESEC successes (and with them, some failures), I really have been given the opportunity to explore and develop my leadership.  I learned more about myself and about my strengths and weaknesses.  Now, as I enter the workforce, I look forward to living up to the second half of the sentence – to have a positive impact on society.

Thanks AIESEC – you’ve really changed my life.

Challenging Your Food View

In AIESEC, we have these sessions at conferences and general meetings called “Challenge Your World View” which  are sessions focused on world issues, thinking outside of our “bubble” and reality here at home and learning new things about a culture, people and way of life.  These sessions are some of my favourite because it challenges you to question what is normal and to think about how people are different around the world.

Soup bubbling away on the stove

Also, because AIESEC is based on exchange, we often have interns or international delegates at conferences that can share their personal experiences making these sessions even more powerful.

Right now we have an intern from Hungary and he offered to make us a meal.  He mentioned Cherry Soup once in passing, and most of us were not too enthusiastic on the idea.  Last night he got all the ingredients for the soup and made us some sour cherry soup and we challenged our food view.  He was so excited because the cherries, which came in a jar, were a product of Hungary.

You can see the actual cherries in the soup and the white specks are the sour cream

It was actually surprising good.  The first couple bites were sour, but as my taste buds adjusted to the sourness, it was pretty good.  You are suppose to stir sour cream into it, but I did not notice a too big a change of taste with it added in.  I am usually not too adventurous with food, but  I am glad I gave this a try.

Striving for Perfection – The Balancing Act Between Perfection and Creativity

If I do something, I want to do it well and be the best at it.

To most people, I don’t think I come off as a very competitive person, but really I am.  I want to be the best and do the best.  To the point that it becomes too much.  I was flipping through a friend’s photo of a recent dance performance and I was thinking to myself, I should start dancing again.  But then I realized, if I did, I would want to excel and do everything perfectly.  I would want an environment that pushed me beyond what I’m capable of and what normal people would enjoy.  That push and then success is what makes it so satisfying for me.

It seems backwards, but that was essentially the reason I stopped dancing and didn’t start again.  I wanted the best and wanted to be the best that I could.  The time tradeoff wasn’t worth it to me in the end.  I could either keep dancing (but much less committed compared to the 30+ odd hours I spent at the studio previously), but at a less competitive level, without that push to be better or I  could just stop.  I tried the former, and that didn’t make me happy.  Yes, I liked the movement, I liked letting go – but half the fun was the struggle, was trying to top who I was yesterday, and then succeeding.  Without it, there was no point.  It would be as if I were Sisyphus, contemned to push a rock to the top of the hill over and over again, only to never make it.  Not to that extreme, but you get the point.  [Funny I just alluded to Sisyphus because that came out of my IB English class, essentially what I gave up dancing for – education]

This drive to be the best and to do everything well has definitely moved across my life, seeping into every essence of my being.  Maybe that is why I like cooking and baking so much, because without that perfection, a cake may not turn out the way you want it, or you’ll get sick because something wasn’t cooked the right way.  It requires planning, thinking ahead – attention to details.

Despite all that, I still like creativity and having room for changes and adapting to what is happening.  I don’t see things in black and white, more as shades of grey.  Maybe that’s why I enjoy parts of math and accounting, but cannot see myself dedicating my life to something so clear cut.  Yes, I like perfection, but I also like the ability for self expression and creativity.

Yesterday, I had my one to one performance feedback session with the Local Committee President and we were talking about the AIESEC values and which ones I demonstrate the most.  Acting sustainably and striving for excellence were both things that came out over and over again.  In everything I do, I make sure its the best for me and for the local.  But I just feel like that is a part of who I am and what I value.  Why commit to something if you aren’t going to give it your all?  Why commit to something if its not going to make a difference?  You’ll just be like Sisyphus, pushing a rock nowhere.

My attentions to details, making sure everything is thought of ahead of time – its just who I am.  Parts of that can be attributed to my intense dance training I received from a young age, where if you’re an inch out of line, or your head is place incorrectly warrants a sharp yell for correction.