The best year of your life
You must have heard the rumours that the best time of your life is your student life. Well, I can tell you (as someone who has extended his student life many times) that this is definitely true! However within your student life you still have so many options and great years, so what will be the best year of them all? It will be your board year!
Written by: Quirien Raat
Doing a board year at the greatest association of the Netherlands is something that only a few will get the opportunity for. With this opportunity also comes a high burden, you are the ones carrying the association and the future of the association and her members rests on your shoulders. A duty that should not come lightly and should definitely not be underestimated. On the contrary you will also get a lot back from both the association and her members!
But what do you actually do to take care of the association and her members? Well, this is remarkably hard to explain, for my fellow boardies I can tell you so much they are doing, but what am I (specifically) doing for the association? I found the answer in the future of the association. We have so many ongoing tasks that we sometimes forget that the world around us is changing too. To make sure that we are still relevant in three to five years we must be working on the future and that is where my main focus comes in.
I want to be sure that in three to five years we have adapted ourselves to the changing situations and are positioned in the best possible way. But how do you actually do this? Well, first of all, you must see the impact of the small change that is made today and shape it such that it will be beneficial for your association. Many think that you have to fight for all these changes but actually 99% of the time it is important to show the right consequences of an action and tell how to make sure the best is ensured for all. Especially within Asset your interests are aligned and you are actually protecting the interests for all of Asset.
Actually Asset becomes your third family during this year (your second family is of course Asset | Econometrics). You will spend so much time together with your fellow board members and the other Asset boardies that you truly have a big family on the first floor of building E. Thinking of all the great moments together I realize it is hard to pick the one moment that was the greatest. Maybe it was the poems that were exchanged with Asset | Economics or maybe it was the day that the first “Bingo kaart” was completed. One thing is for sure, we will take these memories with us for the rest of our lives.
Doing a board year is already very special, but doing a board year in a lustrum year is even more special: during the year you are reflecting back on five years of achievements and you are preparing to celebrate the Lustrum in the wonderful lustrum week itself. Seeing both the Lustrum and Almanac committee work so hard for the association and looking at what they delivered I get filled with pride. So many members are giving everything for our truly wonderful association that I am certain that she will live on forever.
But the thing your learn the most during your board year is your fellow boardies. I was very blessed that I could do a board year with the best possible persons you can desire for a board and to spend your days with. Thanks to Wenxin, Jelle, Joris and Nina I have never been bored during this year and we came closer to each other every day. Our board year was maybe only one year, but we will be forever the board of 2018-2019 and we will be connected to each other way longer than just this year. I wouldn’t have wanted to do this year without any of them and they have made it worth every hour and sleepless night. On that I can only end with “Schatjes goed gedaan!”
