They’re our favourite busy bees, pollinating information and support between various antennae, projects, working groups, NGOs and more. As a CD Member you have a lot to say, both literally and figuratively, but curiously there are some things they never seem to say… The AEGEEan decided to make a list of ten of these oddly missing phrases. Here is part one:
1. I hate having to travel to more than three countries each year
“To be AEGEE is to travel” is what the proverb says. Even with the digital age, the most effective and enjoyable way to explore all the nooks and crannies of Europe is to see them with your own two eyes. As a CD member there is another reason to travel. Instead of just going for fun, there are some activities that a CD member simply must attend, most obviously the Agoras or the EPM.
You could compare it to your local board members who also have to attend some mandatory events during the year. Except that, where they generally have to go to an event on the other side of town, CD members have to go to an event on the other side of Europe. ‘To be CD’, it seems, ‘is also to travel’.
2. I can balance AEGEE with my studies/job
AEGEE can be as addictive as a gambling machine, in the sense that you can put more time and resources into it than you can actually afford (and that one can only hope that the input is worth the outcome… it’s probably going to be fine). For the typical ordinary member, procrastinating your studies for one day or two every several weeks would normally not be such a big deal.
Regardless, the higher you go up in AEGEE, the more time and resources you have to spend on it, thus compromising on time to study or work. You might already see this in your local board as some of its members are unsuccessful at completing some of their courses. On the CD level this phenomenon is even worse. Therefore, it comes to no surprise that CD members generally do not complete university courses or maintain even a part-time job.
3. OMG, I got so much free time!
No, you don’t. As stated before, a CD member has to put so much time and effort into his or her duties that there is no time or energy left to work or study fulltime. CD members do have free time, of course, but generally never that much that they can turn to the sky in ululation and boast about their significant amount of R&R. CD members usually have long busy days. Still, at least their long list of duties is part of a function they like to do… and, if you like it, you should do it.
4. God, my work–home distance is horribly long
It is incredibly long, especially if you live all the way to the top floor. However, as soon as you’ve made your way to the ground floor you can finally start breakfast, except that you left some food in your backpack upstairs for some reason; so you have to go back. Nevertheless, once you are back on the ground floor again you can have breakfast and move into the office in the next room over.
This time, however, you forgot your memory-stick, so you go up one floor to the meeting room, where you used it during that presentation yesterday, only to remember that you also used it to store your movie on it for the post-presentation movie night. So, you go down two floors to the basement, grab the stick, and go up one floor again to the office. Congratulations, you’ve already ran half a marathon and it’s not even 9:00 am yet. Forgetful CD members; they get the best cardio every day.
5. I never get any emails
Yeah… if memory serves well, Svenja van der Tol, the Secretary General in 2015-2016, once had to send so many emails, Google wanted to shut the account down because it thought she was a spam-bot… that’s all we need to say about it.
Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen (based on the original concept of Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen)