a brand new high - from cheryl

the 1st posting by rach was a lovely one! :)

honestly, this national planning is the best one i've ever attended. why?

i have...

a wonderful team.
i feel i'm surrounded by people who are on the same page as me, and we are running towards the same dream in AIESEC Singapore. thank you for giving me the chance to work with you :) i'm excited for the term to come!

a sense of unity.
ambition is not mine alone. every single person needs to believe in the value of the organization.. and during nat planning, i feel people do believe and that they want to work together to achieve. :) that makes me extremely proud to belong to AIESEC Singapore. i feel like shouting it out to the world.

personally learnt from each and every one of you...
i'm still new to this role, and i hope you are patient with me. i'm learning every single second, minute, hour.

i spent some time reflecting on my past 4 months since i've been elected. i really didn't have time to stop and think. i realized that while i was walking down this road, there were so many decisions to be made, they seemed like they were coming one after another. to me, i made the best decisions i could make at every single point in time.

if you knew me a couple of years back and compared me to where i am right now, you would know i've changed a lot as a person. i always found it hard to say 'no' to others, you would hardly ever hear me speak in a huge group. i figured it was always easier to keep my opinions to myself, so i would not offend anyone, or get into anyone's bad books. i wanted people to have a positive opinion of me, so i always agreed to people's requests when they needed help (or when they wanted to shirk responsibility). or the time when i was ostracized in sec sch, i kept quiet and let the misunderstandings around me go on - that was a miserable period of 4 years in sch i endured. back then, things were just so simple, my life was a small bubble, limited to me, myself and I. decisions i made were felt by my immediate family, maybe my close friends as well and not really anyone else.

coming into AIESEC, it gave me the depth to learn more about myself. it taught me that i could fail miserably, and it is crazy for me to take on every single responsibility as my own. i alone cannot fix any thing. in the end i only wear myself out.

in my following years as as MC VP and NST, i had many opportunities to learn about myself as a team player, and to grow professionally, to challenge myself further (trying for virtual teams).. i had many firsts - first NST together with William in 07/08. first @singapore rep on an AI virtual team. first MC VP Comms. first MCP from smu.

it's the last experience that i've found myself thinking so much more - and if you ever have the opportunity to go to IC, you will hear the MCPs/LCPs chant "it's great to be an LCP/MCP". it's an intense journey where you think so much more than usual, in terms of people and management.

over these past few months, i've made tough decisions which people might not concur with. these choices were extremely disconcerting, but they made me learn. from a cheryl who wanted to please as many people as possible, i had to face the idea that i could not please everyone with any decision i make. i knew some would be happy, others would be unhappy.

at the end of the day, i can't satisfy every single person... i only have to place the strongest faith in my decision, that they were made with the best intentions for the whole group of over 200 people. it is not only cheryl making the final decisions for herself, but that she is responsible for the entire organization in singapore.

i've always had this notion that to change the people around you, you have to first start from yourself. and this is where AIESEC for me, begins. :)