This is no Wisconsin Trap

One of the things AIESEC prides itself the most on is the relationships we form. With others in our LC, with other US @ers at ROKS and national conferences, and of course with other AIESECers from around the world. At GMM, we're not allowed to sit next to someone we know, to help all 115 of us get to know one another. At conferences, we share rooms with students from other universities and are constantly told to "put ourselves out there" and "talk to someone new." And of course on our traineeships, we go to a place we've never been to before, to live with people we've never met before, and do things we've never done before.

We constantly talk about building out network and keeping in touch with those we've met. We find people at conferences who we are best friends with for 5 days and then attempt to keep in touch with after, between class and AIESEC stuff and work and other friends. We're all about meeting new people all the time, and bonding with them.

Sometimes, though, what I feel we're really about, is leaving. When your group of best friends is intent on promoting cultural understanding through international exchange, this ultimately means leaving. Leave Madison. Leave your home. Leave your friends. Leave your confort zone. Leave the country. Leave the hemisphere. Leave the anglophone world. Just leave.

And if you aren't leaving, something must be wrong with you.

I feel like we're taught to form all these deep relationships with AIESECers and other people in our lives, but we're also taught that we ought to be able to drop it all, in favor of leaving. And while leaving does ultimately mean exciting and new and fabulous things that WILL change the world, it also means that you and one of your best friends both look like meth adicts for several days, due to crying puffy eye syndrome and lack of sleep. It also means a deeper saddness, that will take more than a few days or weeks to wear off. It also means wondering if you'll ever see the people you've left ever again or if good-bye was really good-bye, not just see you later. (Bonus: it also means a kitchen full of delicious dips, baked chocolate items and CHEESE.)

But really....I'm not saying we should all stay in Madison for the rest of our lives, because eventually that would get boring and would not allow us to do all the things we want. I'm just saying that when most people you know's ideal lives see them in some far-flung corner of the world, life can hurt.

That is all I'm saying.