Epic 2012

It’s been a long time since I last updated my blog here. Well, there have been lots of exciting things going on. When I landed in Heathrow two years ago, that was my first time being abroad and I was doing just fine. So, I thought, hell yeah, put me anywhere on god’s green earth and I’ll get through with ease …until last weekend.

Just two days before the Easter break ends, I attended a conference like no others. It was one of the Aiesec UK’s conferences and it was packed with epic awesomeness and fun! Not to mention that it was highly motivating as well! Really thumbs up to the conference team and the members who pulled it out.

So yeah, a few months ago, I’ve stumbled across this Aiesec society in the Uni. which I decided to join without knowing much about it. And so, a week ago, I ended up in the EPIC2012 conference in Birmingham together with about 100 or more Aiesecers. It was really cool to meet all those enthusiastic people of different backgrounds from various universities all over England. With about 120 of us of more than 50 different nationalities gathering together in the conference, this really makes it literally a global village!

One common thing is that we are all students in UK and everyone in the conference is carrying the identity of exchange participants. Most of us were putting the first step out, including me. So, what is this exchange participants or Aiesec about? If you Googled it, with a click, you’ll find that Aiesec is the world’s largest youth-led organisation, focused on facilitating a global exchange scheme bla,bla…. Ok, so put it simply, by joining Aiesec, you get the chance of experiencing some once-in-a-life time experience, either working or volunteering abroad.

Among the participants, there are some who already have lots of experiences working abroad either by taking part in humanitarian project in Kenya, South Africa or work internship in Russia. Hearing out their experience-sharing is just totally inspiring. During exchange, when you are in a total new environment, working with people of different culture, eating food that you’ve never heard of their names before, what that really counts is not just the invaluable experiences that comes with it. The kind of impact and change you can make to the other part of the world will be the unforgettable one.

I was amazed by how far they’ve gotten themselves out there connecting with the world. And they are just students about the same age like you and me. Being in there listening to them, it really makes you wonder, what have you been doing all this while in your life. There is so much to explore in the world out there. Of course, there are many ways we can participate and get involved in volunteering in the local community as well. But, going to an exchange, exposing yourself to new culture and learning new stuff could really be an amazing self-discovery journey and probably a stepping stone for you to achieve the dream of your life. We only live once and sometimes it’s really now or never, just like what Aiesec offers.