My Very First AIESEC Local Conference

Answering one of the "Nadia's list of unanswered questions".

So as you can see on the title, this post will tell you about my first local conference of AIESEC organization. I'm going to post it on English, so before I'm posting it furthermore, please pardon my bad grammar structure/vocabularies chosen here (he he thanks for understanding :P). And about the first sentence, you can figure out here in this post! Oh yeah this is going to be a long post and unfortunately I  forgot to bring my camera so it'll be no picture here :(

So let's start!

I had my first local conference in 21st-22nd of April. I was so excited a week before this conference held because I thought I'll have my best friends in college too there to accompany. But then a day before, they decided not to come because they have another business out there. I was confuse whether to come or not to come to this AIESEC local conference. And then after such long contemplation (tssaaah), I decided to come and luckily I got a very cooperative chief of group, Laila from FKG UI and also cooperative members of group, Kania from FISIP UI and Eva from FMIPA UI. It's actually 10 of us, but at last it's only 4 of us.

Wait wait, before I continue, do you know AIESEC?

From its website, AIESEC is...

"a global, non-political, independent, not-for-profit organization 

run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national, ethnic or social origin."

And it stands for:

Association Internationale  des Étudiants En Sciences Économiques

AIESEC consist of Exchange Program and Leadership Program. Although it said that AIESEC is for student in economic studies, nowadays it is no longer relevant because all student from every major can join this. So, 'AIESEC' itself now is just kind of brand. Sounds cool, eh? Yup it is! But as a law student, I need a prove. I need a prove that AIESEC is a global organization, I need a prove: is AIESEC really an organization that doesn't discriminate race, gender, sexual orientation, blablabla etc? So I expect this local conference have the answers.

Based on my experience, it's always hard for me to stay alert on a seminar or hearing a long talk (maybe it's because I'm a bad listener, no? Of course no! I always love to listen to my friend's story. And seminar is literally not a daily story or lovey dovey soppy story :p). So before I went to seminar, I usually drink coffee/arranged to have a proper sleep a night before. But you know, I didn't have any proper sleep because I attended "A Tribute to Prof. Safri" (a campus event held by BEM to commemorate my dean that passed away) until late night. SO HOW CAN I SURVIVE? We'll figure it out.

Arrived at the venue with Kania, Eva and Laila, the committee divided the members into different rooms. I met new friends again at that time, they were Belle, Nanda, Wening from Prasetya Mulia Business School and Ola from FT UI. You know what? It's always really fun to have a new friend. The fun part is when you caught the impression of your new friend like "jutek" or "sombong" but then at the end of your meeting, when you finally say goodbye to 'em, apparently you found them as a really fun and nice person :') really that's fun and pleasing. Another funny story, I finally met my BBM friend. How could that be? So I already have her BBM since like 6 months ago but I guess we actually never shake hands properly. We ever met once in Humas BEM from all faculties gathering. She's Viona from FKM UI.

The first session finally started. It was opened by Kak Paulus and then continued with Mr. Jack Rolland from Philippine or simply known in twitter as @jackanino (here jack I promote your twitter account :P) as the chair of the conference. I was confuse at that time because there was motion, proposed by, seconded by, and blabla written on the LCD, and Kak Paulus always said "Any objection, general blabla, can we just passed this..." I forgot what he said, but then I realized it's like in Model United Nation! Oh okay it's a local conference back then. As I predicted it was really hard to stay awake. REALLY. I'm NOT exaggerated at all. It was really really hard like super hard (well okay it's enough). It's really hard although Jack was so funny (or trying to be :P) at that time. His accent of English was funny too, I think like India's accent he he. Some committees gave their words like messages to widely awake & stay alert because it's going to be so important for us that wanna have exchange this summer. What I remember the most was Kak Putem's message:

"You have to be curious! When you got curious you will be proactive."

Also Kak Dito/Kak Paulus message I forget,

"Consider yourself as an empty bottle, so that you can fill anything there."

And then Jack said:

"Make your bottle bigger. If the bottle is just a small bottle, it means that you already know many things and just wanna know little things to be put inside of the bottle. If your bottle is big, you will get many things there."

From that on, I always try to be curious. To anyone who thinks I am an ambitious person because I always do the 'popcorn' (raising hand and say popcorn if we want to say/ask something in the session), I never be such active person on a seminar/workshop/even at the class back then.

I never reject an MC job to speak in front of people, BUT I was usually resist a disclosure of my personal opinion and resist to ask the speaker in front of people.

I always ask after the session done and keep it myself rather than say it out loud by popping my hand up. I will ask in front of the public if it's a well prepared question and I'm sure enough that the question won't be lame. Because what? Yes, I'm not confident enough to share my thought in public. I'm shy to express a question that I thought it'll be lame. But only after Kak Putem deliver the message that we, the delegates have to be curious, I just did! I have to be curious in order to make my brain works, if my brain works my eyes won't shut and I'll be focus. So yeaaah to be curious is the answer of Nadia's unanswered question: "Why it's really hard for me to stay alert in the class?". It may sounds that naive and lame but really, if I didn't join this local conference, I might not found the answer. That's a process of life I guess :"")

I got many lessons there at the local conference. About AIESEC's history, AIESEC way, AIESEC values, AIESEC visions, etc. Their vision is  Peace and Fulfillment of Humankind's Potential. And how is this enacted? With AIESEC values! You wanna know what AIESEC values are? I really like AIESEC values and I think it's really good to be implemented in our life:

Activating leadership

Demonstrating integrity

Living diversity

Enjoy participation

Striving for excellence

Acting sustainably

And then they, the facilitators (called as 'Facis'), also explained about AIESEC UI and its structure, they also explained about Global Networking, AIESEC 2015 (Engage and develop every young person in the world). They also invited Clarisse Bartolome (Clang), from Philippino to presented about Challenging Your Global World. I got a bit confused in each session because they used so many abbreviation like OGX, OC, ICX, Sems, GCDP, GIP, TN, TM, whatsoever @_@ and I just clueless about what it stands for..... Fortunately they provide an induction book that consist of AIESEC's glossary. Beside that they understood that we were confuse and explain what it stands for right after our gimmick changed like 'linglung' :P I really like the topic AIESEC 2015 that presented by Kak Safira and Kak Fahira. They presented it like a talkshow called "Tea People", I guess they're inspired by Sophia Grace and Rosie in Princess Time. But they left the british accent! :P

Oh yeah, the BEST PART of this whole tiring conference are: it was frequently interspresed by roll dances and roll calls + punishment team + fun team :D :D :D what's that actually? So roll dances are dances that exhibited by the facis and then we have to follow them. I'm giving a highest salutation to those facis who remember so many movements on each dance :$ I like "I just wanna run run through the rain" dance and "my lips are sugar" and "chop my money" (sorry if the piece of lyrics wrong :P). Roll calls are... Weird movement? Well it's hard to compose the definition of roll calls actually hahah. But really, roll calls is really amusing. Kak Arkka and Kak Andre always do it best hahah. And then punishment team, it was presented by Kak Chacha and Kak Andre. It's a punishment, but really amusing, really! And then Fun Team were Fandy and Kak Putem. They got "gossip box" and "must do box". We can filled it with paper that consist of gossip. It could be anything! And apparently they got two names of me inside of the box -_- and it literally is a gossip HAHA. And the must do box consists of any instruction we want to give to anyone inside the conference. The best part was when Kak Badar "ngegombal" to Jaja I guess :$
"Hey jaja, is your back hurt?" "Yaa pretty much" "Maybe it's because you just fallen from the sky"
well it's actually from Heaven, kak... Wakakak so romantic. It's nothing but laughing when it's Fun Team on the stage. It's like watching OVJ, really! Kak Putem was so funny and so was Fandy. They were sooooooo energetic. There was also amazing race or emm Night/Dawn Amazing Race (?) held on the first/second day? It's held on 1am (22nd April) and I sleep on 3am. Exhausting day, it is!

I was also give my salute to the facis and OCs there who were always get excited to anything. Or maybe they always "looked" excited, well I don't know but at least it simply gave an energy. They also have like a short song with gestures or a yell. For example, a representative of a group just explain about their discussion or even just a person who share his/her inspiring experience, the moment after they finished it, the AIESECer and then followed by the delegates will yell "SO PROUD OF OF YOU" clap clap clap clap clap!

There was also a sugar cubes in the conference. They provide us an envelope for each person in the conference and allow us to fill it with anything. I was enjoying each session so much so I can't fill them all. I just realized it can be really nice actually if I put a paper in each envelope of my new friends so that I can leave 'a mark' in them. Because a short meeting usually won't last long. It is only a 'hand introduce' not a 'heart introduce'. Yeah but I wish I can still keep contact with everyone that now already on my BBM list :D

So here I dedicated this post to my lovely facis and OCs that conducted such a cool conference with incredible speakers and amazing content. It really is a worthy experience. New friends, sharing thoughts, sharing point of view, what could be more fun? That's what teenager should actually do! Self actualization, exploring and finally explode our passion! I wish I could have my match very soon (sounds like a desperate girl who looks for boyfriend, isn't it? wkwk) to... Turkey!! And then when I got back here, I will share my experiences & implement every good values I got in there. Bismillah.. Wish me luck :')

Lastly quote I remembered, I guess it's from Kak Paulus and he got it from Kak Diba:

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great"

And I hope this post engage every young person in the world who read this.

Cheers!

NSA.