"Hello World!" - An initial transitional development review

Ha! Yet another "Hello World!" message. It's the last day of 2010, even getting late on new year's eve and the year has already passed in quite some countries further east. I'm finally finding the time to contribute my first post to this lovely blog. And it's not only my first post to this blog, it's personally, my very first blog post at all. So, "Hello World!" : )

As, if I am not mistaken, this blog was created to share about the ongoings at the Leadership Summer School 2010 in Ljubljana and the development after, I decided to add my part as a participant of LSS 2010, and moreover as member of the new LSS 2011 coordination team (CT). At this moment I still cannot say where my contribution to this blog will be going, but my initial intention is to share a bit about my life related to the Leadership Summer School and the topic personal development. I guess I myself am probably far more excited about this than you reading it. Well, I will see where it moves and what it creates.

For the beginning, and because it's the right time, NYE, I'd like to start with a small personal review: How LSS 2010 went for me.

• Jul 13, 2010, late Monday night/very early Tuesday morning I received a message to my e-mail inbox: Due to unexpected cancellations, there are places left at the Leadership Summer School 2010 Ljubljana. Starting Friday. First come, first served.
• Description sounds cool. Immediate response to Luka, head of the OC: Want to join!
• Wednesday afternoon, after sending another mail to the CT - time had been running and I hadn't received any reaction: Luka's reply: You're in! - Yeeha! : ) (and just checking my mails and seeing who else joined last minute... whoohoo!)
• Hithchiking to Ljubljana on Friday, but reaching a bit late. Luka picks me from the service station on the highway. Great!
• Saturday the LSS content programme starts. An entire week of high quality and high energy trainings at day, reflection groups in the evening, parties at night, a recreation day, an OST session, a TEDx-like event and regularly barely 3h of sleep a night. Awesome! And despite the variety of trainings I had already visited before - so I think I reviewed quite some topics - I believe to really have learned a lot. Extended knowledge on pretty much every topic and got to know new ones. Thank you, trainers! And the exchange and networking was just perfect. A world without the usual borders. And the probably best OC I have had so far. Top Shit! ; )
• Great trip hitching back home, half way with Lara (from IAAS), and got to ride on a quadbike in the back of a van *g* (Yeah!)
• Since then, quite somewhat has happened in the LSS world. Some of us participants have become trainers themselves, and I also advanced in this field. But to be honest, sadly, I have not managed to keep track of what has been going on in the lives of most of my fellow LSS 2010 participants. The reason is that also in my life a lot has happened, and, after bumming around for a while, I have become quite busy.
  
• Concerning my professional life, still being a student, in October, I finally started on my Diploma thesis. In the end, finally something practical in my studies: I will be developing a position control for a light-weight robot arm, and, working on a prototype, I also have to deal with mechanical and electrical issues. I'm really enjoying this multifaceted work.
  Therefore I moved to Stuttgart - a town I felt rather uncomfortable with before, but I'm starting to really like it.
  And in December, I found myself a small job to support my living. And it promises to become really interesting - I will be evaluating 3D cameras : )
  
• Concerning projects, after having been active in mainly local projects during the last years, I really wanted to finally get some experience in working on an international level. So I joined the TrainersPath project as member of the promotion team. I didn't want to overdo it at that time, as I was still expecting to have to dive a 120% into a diploma thesis shortly. However, this work has been finished, at least for my side, and I have gone another step further. In October, I joined the LSS 2011 coordination team. Being responsible for PR & Communications, next to my diploma thesis, this project has probably been most time-consuming during the last weeks. So far we have set up some working and communication structures, started the fundraising and have just freshly elected the organising committee: IFISO NL. They featured a great concept, that will once more take the LSS further in its development, and a challenging fundraising situation, so we're now out to conquer the world ; ). Big expectations. And our first face to face coordination team meeting in Naples right ahead. 6 days to go...
  
• I also proceeded in my trainer carreer. I have got some awesome new mentors. The best I've ever had! And in October, I attended the AEGEE T4T İzmir, to learn how to help people learn : ) in the best way possible. Moreover I attended the AEGEE Human Ressources European School in Budapest, as assistant trainer, in November. Right after starting my Diploma thesis. Really glad my advisor let me go. That's the positive side of not being paid for your work. And in December, I held a training for the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) and their Interim meeting. And I'm excited about what more there is to come.
  

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the current development. With my Diploma thesis and little job on the technical side, the LSS 2011 CT position for international projects, and the training activities I'm slightly overworked, and the small drop of bitterness is that I, at times, cannot keep my own promises, concerning work I promised to do. But this also forces me to become better organised and more efficient, and might, in the end, maybe even teach me some self-discipline. And I just love this. I love learning and developing. It feels just so great!

Well, this was quite somewhat to read. But I had to catch up with the last months. It's dawning by now, as I had interupted writing to celebrate NYE, at some point noticing that I wouldn't manage to finish before midnight, shutting down my computer and running off to reach a nice view point for the fireworks just on time. But it's not too late. At least the US east coast has not celebrated NYE yet. And also Alaska and some islands out there in the pacific ocean are still waiting : )