Blue, and beyond

If I were to write you a story about AIESEC, it has to be beyond the impact we create.

It will be a story about the people I met here and the times I spent trying to figure out how each individual turns out differently. It will tell the story of all the different personalities in this organisation, the unique individuals who stepped up to own their experience and create their stories while inspiring others more. It will be a story of people who may not know what they are taking from AIESEC but know exactly what they are giving to this place. It will be about the people who were inspired and grew to be people who inspire. It will be a story of people in blue, red, yellow...of all the multitude of colours you never knew could exist in.

It will be a story of conflicts and arguments in the journey of achieving peace. It will be about the heated debates of how one action stems into part of a bigger culture. It will be how we fought for our ideas to be heard and argued for the team to prioritise our perspectives because we believe we can do better for the people we care for. It will be a story of how we push our differences aside to sit together and plan beyond the barriers, a tale of painting the world with peace as the organisation asks for. It will be a journey where we find it deep in ourselves to think about stories beyond the tryst we think they hold and the prospects of stepping in clouds with the different apparatus we believe this place has.

It will be a story of leadership – of the growing pains and how it spurs us to be a better version of ourselves. It will be about how we learn to learn and learn to grow, from the most unassuming situation and the most unarmed intuition, from the most unmistakable error and the most unmasked pride. It will be a story of leading a team, leading a story, and of how we lead ourselves. They share stories of how we lead and tell stories, but rarely do they share how leading ourselves is the main journey we succeed in concocting through the years. Of all the stories beyond blue, it is the leadership we activate and the enthusiasm we push to pry and plough into the ups and downs of the annual heroic crisscross.

It will be a story of cross-cultural understanding – a story I spent my whole university life trying to attain and preserve. Quick fun fact: I joined the society in university because, by then, it was one of the few societies not overly populated by a singular ethnicity or religion, and I appreciated this diversity more than anything else. Maybe it is to fulfil my need for different voices and perspectives as a creative stimulant, or maybe it is to recreate the environment I grew up in. Still, the multicultural picture painted by AIESEC was beyond a good respite for me. It is a story that escalated in international conferences and later prompted my flight down under, a journey that granted me the full circle experience I desired. As someone once said, real cross-cultural understanding doesn’t just come from being friends and interacting with people of different colours at events; it is also through working and living with different cultures and coming to agreements despite growing up with different ideals.

It will be a story of friendship. When in the most difficult of situations, nor when you feel helpless during tough times, the story of friendship blossoms as people step in. Whether it is to holler and offer a place to stay in crisis or the walks home together as we share heartfelt conversations, it is often a story filled with mini moments because often it is the details that shape every puzzle piece. It is the story where we learn each other’s needs, desires and disdains as we learn to tolerate, contribute and put our energy into making each other happier to be friends. It is the tackle battle, the random toilet grabs, the roasts in the form of both food and words, the hobbies we share, the travels and the willingness to agree despite it pushing us out of our comfort zone and barrier. It is the story of friendship that prevails over time and harvests more as life flows through time and us.

It will be a story of blue.

Blue for the vast generosity in people I’ve met in my journey, for they have tolerated all the differences and pains as I grow more aware of myself.

Blue for all the personal ups, downs, doubts and craziness I went through, blue for all the combination of love and stories people willingly tell.

Blue, for the emotional void I felt while the feeling of an end enters.

Blue, for the lessons I learned from different parts of down under.

Blue, for the exchange with different entities; the exchange of knowledge, culture, journey and stories with different personalities.

Blue, for the fun we had in 201; the dinner parties, Netflix binge, teary nights, starry skies and drunken states – and nights we shared solitude in the same space.

Blue, for the parties we create in different homestays across our home.

Blue, for the painstaking nights, we stayed up to firefight a crisis or plan our next three months.

Blue, for the sleepless 5ams after long legislation debates in the living room where we were deadbeat but unwilling to sleep for we knew how little time we had left as guiding stars together.

Blue, for the culture shock through international conferences, upon learning how different each entity can be as we immerse ourselves in each other’s joy and console the pains.

Blue, for the all-encompassing, the friendship and the love we feel.

Blue, for AIESEC, and all the stories beyond.

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