Pozor schod

That's what AIESEC has been about all along for me. However, at the conference NEXT 2007 I did not feel challenged. I was leading my group but I did not feel the passion that I had before when taking the role of facilitator. I shared this with Mena, Fabian and quite a few other experienced AIESECers here in Czech Republic. I told them that they should not expect me to train at their next conferences, because I didn't feel "it" anymore.
When I was returning from the Easter weekend with Fabian, he was telling me that for NatCo 2007 they were missing a chair. For those who are not members of AIESEC, a chair is not a piece of furniture, but the person who is leading the flow of the conference, animating the event and making sure everything runs smoothly.
A little voice inside me was saying "I can do this", but I was feeling quite uncomfortable with the idea, because chairing a conference is a bundle of all activities I don't consider myself so good in. In the end I told Fabian that I could do it, but only if they really wouldn't find anyone else. He promised me to tell me by Sunday if it was needed.
When on Monday evening I still hadn't heard anything, I was somehow happy that I did not have to face this challenge. But then on Tuesday I actually got a call to see if I could still be there on Wednesday and go for it anyway, I was scared, but I still wanted to give it my best shot and see how this would go.
This means that for the 42nd conference of my AIESEC career, I got the chance to chair an event with 250 delegates, 6 parallel agendas and some spectacular moments such as the National awards ceremony or the take-over of the new leadership team at 3 o'clock in the night. As a chair, you are the one who is requested to entertain 250 people with a dance when you actually want to bring a serious message, and you are the one to go first in the Topalki drinking competition, starting at 4 AM. This was my biggest AIESEC challenge ever, and I have never been so stressed for 4 days in a row, but it was definitely worth it.
Just when I thought AIESEC couldn't teach me a lot more, I got this wonderful present from AIESEC in the Czech Republic.
Thanks to all of you!