Leaders EZINE (3,2)

Volume 3, Issue 2

Many people say that life in Montana is boring when compared to the life in other states of the USA. Well, it might be boring for a person from New York who is used with sky scrapers and noise everywhere. But for a Montanan, who likes peace, serenity and nature, his state is the most beautiful place on Earth. The only sky scrapers there are the mountains with their seemingly unreachable peaks. That is why, one of the most often practiced sports there is hiking.

Life is like hiking on a path with ups and downs, on a road that takes you to unexplored places. It is a journey with no defined destination; you know when it starts but never when or where it will end. And to make it closer to reality, let us think about it as a hike during the night. That is the moment when you don’t really know which step will take you where, when you cannot see clearly the pathway and when the view from the top gets more beautiful.

You start that hike with no problems because how could it get that hard when you are so close to the bottom of the mountain? You can go back anytime, can you not? You put one step in front of the other, adapt to a new rhythm as the slope increases, and start your observation of the world in front of you, of the lights through the city, of the people behind or ahead of you. Some of them go back; they have already seen it, they have already been there. And now that I think about it, I realize how much truth was behind Marie Ebner Eschenbach’s words:” In youth we learn; in age we understand”. However, you are really not curious about what the others did. You want to go your own way and do not even think about asking. After all, they do not seem to wish to stop for a while and explain anything. So going on is apparently a better idea.

Then, at one point you lose your balance, you step the wrong way and almost fall. You look around to see who else saw that and if they are laughing or coming to the rescue. But you know... everybody makes mistakes. As the famous Italian actress Sophia Loren said, “Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life”. I personally never learned when someone was telling me how hard it hurts to hit your head on the wall. I had to hit it myself so I could understand. Therefore, never be afraid of stepping wrong! Mistakes are the best way to learn. Indeed, when it comes to grave mistakes, you have to listen to the warnings posted on the way. But usually, the basic lessons in life are learned through errors. The idea is to try to keep your balance and if you fall anyway, do not be ashamed, get up again and keep going.

As you advance, the view from up there is simply memorable. But in contrast to that, the darkness is getting sharper, signs of dangerous paths are posted here and there and you are already half way up, too far from the safe side. Consequently, you get scared and your heart starts pumping up like crazy. You stop at every suspicious sound in the grass or look twice at every rock in front of you to see if there is not a snake staring back. Desperately, you take the first shortcut, but is that a wise decision? OOOPS, that shortcut is so narrow, steep, deep and dark at the same time and you start doubting about it as you go further on. When your doubts reach their climax you stop. Hence, you go back slowly but surely, crawling on your back and supporting your weight on your palms and elbows. You did it again…another mistake, another failure. You wanted to take the short way, but did not see the consequences of that. But you now know and will think twice about taking the shortcut next time. One thing you have to remember: it is never too late to start over again!

(to be continued)

How many of you felt sad at the end of your YLI conferences, saying that you would miss your friends? And how many of you hoped that one day you would have the possibility to see the wonderful persons met during your YLI experience again?

YLI gave us infinite opportunities for personal development, but it also encouraged us to take what we learned and share our knowledge with others.

Having this in mind, a couple of YLI members from Turnu Severin Chapter thought about starting an organization which continues the YLI story, promotes the YLI spirit, follows YLI principles and ideals; it intends to involve many young people in various recreational and community service activities, national and international projects. At the moment it is just a group of dedicated friends, a motivated, enthusiastic, young team, willing to really do more, change something in the community and beyond. We believe that we don’t have to be great to get started, but to get started to be great.

But we also believe that a dream which is not shared is just an illusion. Sharing it though transforms it into reality.

Our initiatives would be more efficient, our influence in today’s society would be stronger if we could attract an international participation for the realization of our organization’s projects. We can form a vibrant and dynamic team, constantly working to make a difference in the lives of young people and empowering them to have a voice. It’s like the TEAM rule: Together Everyone Achieves More if there is a Total Effort from All Members.

What if YLI Alumni would start a Youth Leaders National chapter in their countries, recruit as many youth as possible, organize different projects, leadership conferences and other team-building workshops and then meet at a reunion and share our experiences, present, debate and evaluate our successes as leaders. In this way, we can both be active in applying what YLI taught us, and get to see other again, in an organized manner. This might also represent a reunion in the form already proposed by Michael Dixon, where we could present ourselves as leaders in action. The meeting with YLI Staff would then be a meeting between mentors and students, during which we would improve our managerial abilities. It would be great if you join the YLI Alumni Reunion group on Facebook created by Vlad Ciucisan, or post your ideas, comments, suggestions on YLI group’s discussion board initiated by Michael Dixon.

However difficult to realize it may sound, it’s not impossible! This can become our dream, and it can definitely be accomplished. It is a challenge which can surely be faced and conquered. Remember what Jerold Samet advised us: „Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so! All things are possible for those who believe and put hard work, determination, dedication and faith in them.”

One of the most famous poets of my country defined the human-being as the one who thinks alone. Another important scholar, born in my native city, said that „the first thought of a thought is to meet the thinking”. And I express these present thoughts hoping that they will find an answer among YLI members (past and present), believing in the impressive force of Henry Ford’s words saying that „coming together is a start, staying together is progress, and working together is success”, and adding my own inducement: let’s go from a start, through progress, to achieve success!