Words from the President

Interview by Rhiannon Smith (IE)

What was your first impression of Digital Sessions? Has it changed?

To be truthful, I was not really into digital sessions when the Covid situation started. I thought it wouldn't be worth it in comparison to real life sessions, so I was just going to wait it out until I could actually go to a physical session again. Even when I realised that that was not going to happen anytime soon, I still wasn't attracted to applying to a digital session. When I was invited to one, I was like, “Maybe I can reconsider and give it a try”, although I thought it might be boring, which I no longer think. I’m actually having such great fun and I think that just like any other session when you have good people around you, you can enjoy yourself, even through a zoom call. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Chairs team and, also at all the activities that the officials can engage with thanks to the Head Organisers. The only thing that I thought about, and was right about, is that I expected them to be very tiring in terms of screen time. When you are in the chairs team or when you are on the Board, you don’t really have the option of logging in and out, doing some work or sitting back because everything pressures you timewise and you spend the entire day in front of your laptop, which for me has been super draining both mentally and physically but, you realise that it is worth it eventually.

What is your favourite EYP memory?

I would say that there is one too many and I think that most EYPers would say the same. I’ve had so much fun and met so many lovely people from all over the world. I have so many favourite sessions, but, a really wholesome moment for me was around two years ago, actually almost exactly two years ago now. I was Head Organising a National Selection Conference in Thessaloniki, the 38th. It was a really stressful experience overall, you work on a project for nine months and you feel so much pressure from teachers, delegates, officials. All the expectations, all the management, all the difficulties of finding funding and everything. All of the work really did drain me mentally and it really stressed me out, but then it was General Assembly day and

we went outside by the sea to take a session picture. Our GA venue was near the sea and the sunset was in the back and I saw two-hundred people gathered together and I thought: “Wow, this is beautiful. There are so many people here because of something I managed to do. I managed to bring all of them here, together.” I felt so much gratitude and happiness for what I was able to get out of all those people and so happy to have them all there with me to share that moment. It’s definitely one of my favourite moments in EYP I would say.

Do you think you have changed since your first EYP session and if so, how?

I think I feel way more confident. I would say that I always felt kind of confident because I always chose to do things that I knew I could. The difference is that at the beginning, I was very focussed on doing things in a way, as a chair for example, in a way that the Board would approve of or look favourably at. I would be really, lets say, stressed about my performance, but then in the process and up to now, I’ve found my own style, my own way of working where I feel comfortable and I don't really care as much about what others think if I know that what I'm doing is good for me and for my team.

If you could give the participants of Athens 2020 a piece of advice, what would it be?

I would tell them to look forward because I feel like it's a time that people are not really particularly enjoying right now. Aside from the small things that make them happy or that can make their day, what we are going through is rather restrictive so I would tell them to look forward to all the things that can come to them after this experience. This session was just a baby step into the world of EYP and there is so much more waiting for them outside if they decide to give the network a chance and to do more from now on.