When you’re having fun …

I’m very pleased to announce a guest entry by Carolien Maas a Young AMASC member from The Netherlands:

It’s 22.30 and I am exhausted. My day was filled with all kind of things I usually don’t do on a regular Wednesday. I met people from all over the world, explored Valetta, gave a presentation about Young-AMASC and had dinner in a lovely restaurant. In short: life in Malta is good and exciting!

My wonderful day started a bit less wonderful: my alarm went off at 07.00. And although I couldn’t be bothered to wake up before 07.30, it still felt way too early for someone who didn’t went to bed in time. To make things worse, our bus to bring us to Excelsior, (where the congress is held) left at 08.00. So I had to rush like mad, to look nice and awake, just in time before we would leave.

But I got on the bus and arrived in time at the congress for the General Assembly. This was pretty important because I had to give a presentation on the developments of Young-AMASC in the past four years. Actually it was Claudia’s job to give this presentation, she is a member of the board and responsible for Young-AMASC. But because of medical reasons she wasn’t able to attend the Congress. When she asked me to do the presentation instead, I immediately said: ‘Oh yes of course’. But when I saw how many people there were (around 200 I guess), I did get a bit nervous!

I told the people about the volunteer projects we have (as an alumni / alumnae you can do projects in India, Egypt, USA, Poland etcetera), the hospitality network (if you go on holiday somewhere or stay in a country for a longer period of time, you can contact people from AMASC who life in that country and ask them for advice and sometimes even accommodation). I also mentioned our Facebook website and of course our ‘Young AMASC goes Malta’ weblog!

The reactions I got were so enthusiastic! People came up to me saying that they were so delighted to see that the young people are setting up this kind of projects. And of course it is great that we can make use of the beautiful and international network the Sacred-Heart has! I think as young people it’s so important that we promote this network amongst our fellow students. That if somebody wants to take a gap year between high school and university or between bachelors and masters for instance, they first think of the Sacred-Heart volunteer projects. Because doing voluntary work is not only a great personal experience (I worked in the Sophia Centre in Patna, India), you are also making a small contribution to the world!

In the afternoon the congress continued, but because only the AMASC board could participate, I went sightseeing in Valetta instead. And Valetta is beautiful. I really got the feeling walking on a film set. Time flies when you’re having fun, so before I knew it, it was time to have dinner and go to bed….

Carolien Maas

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