Reflecting upon myself

The beginning of this year has been very interesting so far for me. Although I have lived in the Netherlands for over an year now,unlike most of my fellow classmate who have just arrived here,but I am still feeling like I discover Holland for the first time.

One of the biggest reasons why, is the new exciting environment in which I find myself. I was so amazed by the way inHolland interacts with us,the students. They grabbed us from the first day and I strongly believe they will not let us rest until we graduate.

The induction week was quite fascinating in my opinion. Every day was completely different, I got to learn so many new things before our classes even started. First I got to meet all of my classmates and learn about their story and background. Additionally I met also very interesting and successful businessmen. Likewise all of them were with a different background and operate in a different business sphere, but all this made the whole experience very treasurable. I learned many valuable l lessons about intuition, money systems, sustainability, fashion and innovation. On top of that I was involved into so many socialising activities that by the end of the week I already felt like I know everybody.

Outside of the classroom my life also started very different from last year. Now I am living into a new place with four of my closest friends, in a new neighborhood. Before I used to live in the ghetto of Amsterdam – Bijlmer. So now I am just proud of myself that I made it out of there without getting shot. I find my new way of living much more interesting and challenging as living like this you become close with those people and very soon they start to feel like family.

Now the first term is over,it is assessment time and I have already selected my Nlu's for the second term. During the first term I learned a lot of new lessons about myself. One thing I realised on my own is that I sometimes have the habit of procrastinating projects/work to be done, and this leads to me not being successful. The funny thing is people have told me I do that way back, three or four years ago, but I never listened. But I also did not have much of a reason to do so, I was in high school things were layed back, I did not have to do much. Indeed I should have listened. This nasty habit is still with me and is just because I was never really self reflecting on my journey and thus did not really notice it. However now I am very aware of it and this year I really want to change this. During the first term, me procrastinating things has happened quite a few times, on the other hand I see this as positive experience. Now I can learn from it. The more I realise myself doing this and catch myself in the moment, the more this time period between me procrastinating and me realising it is shortening. Eventually I will notice it before I have even done it and thus preventing it from ever happening again.

There is one major thing that changed about me in this term. Last year and also this year up until now I was not sure if this is the study for me. I did wanted to study something in the sphere of business when coming here and I was motivated about it, but still there was this uncertainty in me. However now it is gone. I know what I want to do, I know this program is for me, and I am going to be working very hard to keep myself in university and graduate. This realisation happened during the guest talk of Gabriel Mcintyre. I mentioned this as well in my learning journey but I think it was the biggest change in my journey so far so I feel I have to mentioned it again. He showed me the way, and the picture of my future that I was looking for. I do not know why I got this enlightenment exactly from him but not just from this program because it is something which I have pictured myself doing since a kid. I only had forgotten about this and when I saw this image again I really felt like I was enlightened. The best thing about is that is it is something I really like I just did not know about it. But now since I've made this realisation about myself I feel much more in the right place.

In conclusion the new me is very eager to learn,design,execute and most importantly innovate. My experience until now has been in some way life changing on this is only term one. I am very excited about my future here in IBIS and can not wait to see in what new ways I would see myself after some longer period.