Experiencing Diversity through Dare to Dream Project!

Several weeks have passed, but I still left my heart at that moment. All I could say is I am not the person who can easily socialize or neither melt the situation. You can portray me as an introvert potato who keeps herself away from the crowd most of the time. Until one day, I got the opportunity from the most life-changing organization that I have participated in, AIESEC in UI. The offer was about becoming a teaching volunteer collaborating with AIESEC in Thailand. Basically, the volunteers are supposed to teach Thai students general trending topics, such as Gender Equality, Digital Era, Cross-Cultural, and Interpersonal Skills.

Dare to Dream is a project that aims to inspire, and widen youth's perspective through a variety of entertaining and educational activities. They provide interactive sessions and learning for the students/delegates in the sessions. The delegates will be participating with people in the group through discussion, games and exchanging perspectives with each other in English.

Formerly, I was not sure to try out for this opportunity, yet another thought convinced me that opportunity does not come twice. Then, I ended up considering that this opportunity could help me train and navigate my fear of public speaking. Furthermore, I have never been involved in an event/organization with international students, so I think it could be a massive choice for me as well as enrich my experiences. Without having any doubt, I registered for the offer and got the further announcement of interview day in a few days.

I can tell that I am not a person who is fluently speaking English because I was born in Indonesia and Bahasa Indonesia is my mother tongue. My fear also kept haunting me as I was afraid that I could not communicate smoothly with strangers. Eventually, I nailed the two interviews (introductory question interview and class simulation), which means that I was accepted to become a volunteer, specifically in the Digital Era session! I could not be any more excited for this news (Yup, even though the event was held online).

As the actual day was around the corner, I practiced myself a lot, starting from setting up the deck, creating the speaker notes, and doing the Q&A simulation. Honestly, I also would tell that my anxiety was coming closer. Of course, I was experiencing a panic attack and worrying about whether I would give the best performance. Technical issues have also become my main fear since I can not imagine how bad it would be if I had technical difficulties, like the laptop won’t operate well, internet connection problems, etc.

Before performing on an actual day, I was given a little brief from the committees through the dry run. At the dry run, I was expected to show them my presentation and ensure that nothing was missed. Attending the dry run session calmed me slightly, but I still got anxious it was only three days away from the day.

The actual day had come; I was experiencing cold sweat as usual. On the night before the day, I even could barely sleep because I was so nervous. However, I tried to convince myself that everything would be okay as long as I stuck to the preparation guidelines. Entering the meeting, I was not really surprised because I knew that I would become the only Indonesian person in the room. I was surrounded by Thai friends, which honestly made me feel anxious and excited at the same time. This was my first ever experience to assort with international friends, which made me feel certain feelings, such as being entirely proud of myself.

One of the funny things is that I found it quite challenging to catch up with a Thai accent, and I bet they were experiencing the same issue. Nonetheless, I was delighted that I managed to give the most of the presentation. I could not be any reliever than knowing I have passed the enormous fear I am facing. I know that I might not be perfect, but I was glad that the whole class went smoothly. The students also gave their thoughts on the materials, which somehow broadened my perspective. The committees are also very supportive as they had helped me to make the class more interactive.

Needless to say, this experience is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Living in diversity allows me to see the different sides of any aspect as I was also reminded that there are thousands of cultures, races, languages, and many more in this world. Diversity also provides me another way of seeing different perspectives, which in turn are helpful in the development of all the individuals, society, countries, nations, and the world at large. Moreover, it teaches me empathy and closes gaps in understanding between different groups of people. Most importantly, as usual, I successfully proved to myself that I always managed to control my fears in the end.

Thus, it is worth mentioning that I can’t wait to embark on another journey and see what the future holds for me! Extremely excited!💓