Wednesday, May 16, 2012
5:47 AM |
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Well here I am writing this last blog post from Canada. My last post was from April 24th and I m not quite sure where all that time has gone. Time flew by. After we got back from Nepal, the last portion of the course was jammed packed; it was hitting home that our time in Bangkok was almost done. We had to wrap up all our assignments and prepare our individual presentations for our public seminars as well prepare a class presentation for the Rotary World Peace Symposium. It was a busy time, trying to cram in all the last minute things we wanted to do in Bangkok, spend time together with our new friends and welcome many of our Peace Fellows families to Thailand, who have come to see their loved one graduate and tour the country.
It was a busy time for the Rotarians in Bangkok as well as they were preparing for 35000 Rotarians from around the world to come for the Rotary International Convention. Bangkok came alive with Welcome Rotarian Billboards and signs everywhere throughout the city, it was really an impressive site.
The first week of May, which is also our last week was a whirlwind of activity, starting with our Public Seminar presentations on May 1st delivered in panel style, followed by a reception and our graduation; a bittersweet moment. So happy to have successfully completed the course but yet so sad to know that soon we will all be going our separate ways. On May 2nd we had our final farewell get together as a class, May 3rd, 4th and 5th we attended the Peace Symposium with our class presentation on May 4th. Our class topic was Mobilizing the Rotary Peace Fellows network to help with the final push of eliminating Polio from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The evening of the 3rd, there was a large reception at the Intercontinental to network with fellow past Rotary Peace fellows and Rotarians, the 4th we had a Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni dinner and the evening of the 5th was a reception for all Rotary Peace Fellows from Chulalongkorn University, here we were presented with Chulalongkorn pins by the University’s Vice-President. This was also our last formal even as a class and the good byes were hard.
The morning of May 6th was a hard day, it was suddenly very quiet around campus. Many of my classmates left for flights throughout the night. I myself was packing up to move off campus for my last few days on campus. Even the goodbyes to the staff at the residence and the parking guys who always greeted me with a big smile every time I came and went from residence were hard to say goodbye too.
This course has been an amazing experience in every aspect of it. The skills and tools I have learned in class, the experiences on our filed studies to Mae Sot and Nepal, the personal growth, the new friends from around the world, all of it was truly challenging and amazing. Rotary gives so much for people like me ready to take on their challenges; it is hard to imagine how to ever thank them for the experiences other than to continue to do good work and make ‘em proud!
One of our Instructors, Miki Jecevic during week 7 had told us to try and prepare for re-entry into our lives back home after this course, he told us, we will have been changed forever for this course and re-entry will be tough. At week 7 I could potentially see this, however at the end of week 12, I really had no idea how hard it would be until hit and hit hard.
I am home now and trying to reflect on my last three months and ready to apply what I have learned but at this point, only 4 days home I still feel like my heart is in Bangkok at the Rotary Peace Center.
Thank you to those who have followed my blog!
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