Everyday's a beautiful day
Long gone are the wretched horrible days of -30 degrees Celsius weather... long gone are those horrid days piling 30 cm of snow on your driveway... long gone are those abominable times of sleet and freezing rain...
... because everyday is a beautiful day. Minus thirty? Relish the crisp fresh air when you walk out your door in the morning, expect it, laugh at the frosting snot in your nose when you breathe.
30 cm of snow dumped on your driveway within hours? That's the price you pay for watching pretty little snowflakes fly by your window...
... and days awash with sleet and freezing rain? Pray for those outdoors, be glad you're inside because no matter what we do to protect ourselves, mother nature can easily tear your roof down with the flash of a storm...
Wake-up call
National Congress 2008 was my one anniversary of having gone to my first conference, and boy were things different.
I will not go into detail of what happened exactly, but I definitely can say that I am a different person. Perhaps not so much physically (conferences aren't usually make-over spas) but I do feel as if I'm in a different mental mode now, and it's not just a mode - but in a different mind set that will probably be staying with me for the rest of my life.
Had AIESEC Ryerson not fully funded me, I would not have gone to NC. I must say that I took away far more from this conference than it was worth... but how would one measure the value of a conference?
I can somewhat relate this to a meeting I had with a certain individual (who is now one of the people I respect most in the organization) that was speaking about measuring an exchange. To be specific, they were talking about their definition of the value of a Cultural Envoy for Exchange and Development. They had come up with something along the lines of it being the difference between participants having gone and not having gone on the exchange. I suppose the scale of measurement was "impact", because for example, one the participant came back from the exchange, if they would have made a different choice in/for life onwards, then there would have been an impact. And that's exactly how I feel about National Congress; I have made many decisions (and will be making many decisions) with much variation compared to if I hadn't gone.
Here are the highlights of each day of the conference. Breakdown. Bondage. Reflection.
Opening plenary: worst one of my life. Clubbing and partying with AIESECers again was definitely the highlight of this night. I'd been longing the feeling of knowing I'm safe in a club 'cause I know everyone in it.
Day 1: Snowball fight in the lobby.
Day 2: New Years' Eve; the disaster I expected to occur happened on a night I didn't expect it to.
Day 3: This night created my itinerary for spring break.
Day 4: Wonderful sleepless night, tired beyond belief, though the best part was not writing any sugar cubes and watching others frantically doing so. Got to be crazy and hyper and bother everyone else while they were crazy tired. Stealing t-shirts, minichase, and finally falling asleep in the plenary lobby on a sofa.
Everything in between is for me to keep, and for you to discover in a conference coming up near you...
East and West in balance, outgoing, incoming, flaneurs alike.
