IPM 2009 and Rome

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So in mid February was going to take place IPM in Rome so Slovenians AIESEC Presidents (the current and elect) and I decided to take advance of living in Central Europe and managed a way to go by car. How great is that? I will miss this mobility once I get back to Portugal…

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They managed to convince one guy to drive us there so we went by car, we stopped in Bologna to visit the city, we slept in the car and we got to Rome in a sunny and nice morning ready for the conference.

IPM like I had mentioned before is without a doubt the best AIESEC conference in the network but the second IPM is a bit different. Just to recall: this is the most diverse AIESEC conference with only 2 delegates per country in a total of 107 countries represented that lasts for 12 days.

For me it was a very nostalgic conference that made me reflect a lot about the beginning, about all the dreams and hopes I had one year ago. The elections for the international team took place once again and this year was very intense, I participated in the longest legislation ever in my life, I had some of the most hilarious moments of my AIESEC career and I had a lot of thinking… For me this conference was mostly:

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- Get to know and give transition to my successor, Jelena. We had great time together and I am very confident about the future of AIESEC in Croatia:

- About meeting old friends, having good conversations and sharing crazy ideas:

- To think about the failures but also the successes and achievements of my term:

- To think about my future and my next steps:

- To speak a lot of Portuguese with the people from PSGN ;)

- Being proud of my friends and of the people I saw growing and taking new challenges during the conference:

- And to say “See you soon” to long lasting friends whom I’m sure I will meet someday, somewhere, somehow…:)

Some flashpoints:

- Some cultural mindsets are true... it is true that Italians eat a lot of Pasta and basically they eat it in every meal;

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- To be in a conference with something like 230 people from 107 countries where more than 20 are Native Portuguese Speakers is a very weird feeling. I spoke more Portuguese in this conference than any other international conference for sure;

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- Representing Croatia just became a part of me and it is how people recognize me. I felt a bit that I branded Croatia during the last year in the AIESEC network and I felt proud of “being from Croatia”;

- After one year sharing my hopes, frustrations and even days with some of those people I am afraid I will never have the same opportunity to meet them all again and for sure not in the same place, but I am grateful I even had such experience and opportunity;

- Even in a period of time where we find intelligent life in other planets, AIESEC will still be relevant and instead of Country members we will have Planet members, Growth Networks will be Planetary systems and Solar system roll call will be something like “We got sun, yeah yeah, we got sun, yeah yeah. We got what? What? What? What? What?” heheheh;

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- Rome was definitely an amazing surprise. A beautiful city that combines old and new in every street and corner, history in every place and also a touch of Mediterranean culture at least in the night life. A city I could for sure life for a long period of time: