The Journey Takes Us

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.
-John Steinbeck 

I love planning and deciding where I should go, what I should do, how things will unfold. Unfortunately, the outcome is always something I never expected completely. Thinking back to all the things I've done over the years, this has always been something that has been consistent.

Local Committee President for AIESEC Kwantlen

I wanted to develop myself. I wanted to do this through experience because you can't learn leadership from just reading books. Its the reason I dived straight into AIESEC the moment the opportunity came a long for myself. I expected it to be challenging and for it to be a one year involvement where I would have a successor to pass the leadership mantle to afterwards. Ultimately, I never expected the outcomes that would come from it.

It would lead me to travelling more

I didn't expect I would get addicted to travelling. My trip to New York City with my friends became a defining life experience for me. The people I met, stories I heard and memories I made will be lasting me a lifetime and I've developed a craving for more of them ever since. As a result, I've caught the travel bug and every year I've been going and exploring new cities and plan to continue to do so.

It made me into a life long volunteer

I never expected I would volunteer as much as I do, even if I'm not paid for the work. Even after my experiences, I've found that I like volunteering and having projects to actively work on when ever I want to. It made me realize that volunteering is a great way to continue to try new things and develop skills that otherwise I wouldn't be able to.

It went from 1 year to a 3 year journey

AIESEC was 14.2% of my life by the time I passed my leadership role on to someone else at 21. This is something I joke about constantly but its true. It took up a significant part of my life to help build up AIESEC Kwantlen. As a result it is a big part of what made me who I am today. I never expected it to take have as big of an impact as it did and I continue to build my own businesses and organizations in the same way I built AIESEC Kwantlen for myself.

I was so new to AIESEC I event spelt it wrong in my journal !

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By Stevie Vu

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My trip to Singapore

The Buried Life : A tale of inspiration, battle and dance

Addressing all of us at the"Be The Change" conference at the Langley Event Center, the crew from The Buried Life asked us the question :

What do you want to do before you die ?

My signed book written by The Buried Life !

A good question and difficult to answer. They were asking us to announce it at the front of the stage to hundreds of people in attendance. To announce to the world what was important for us to achieve within this life time, within the minuscule amount of time that we have and before we lost the opportunity to achieve it. 

With the encouragement of my friend Hardeep, we both walked up to that lonely scrawny microphone at the front of the stage. Being a gentleman of course, I let her announce her message first. Lost in my own breathless anxiety I only briefly heard her mention something about dancing together. I heard what she wanted to do clearly enough in just a few moments. 

"I CHALLENGE ALL OF YOU TO A BREAK DANCE BATTLE AGAINST US !"

 The crowd was astonished. The guys from The Buried Life was surprised. I was astonished ,surprised and a bunch of other things too. Especially since Hardeep doesn't break dance. 

Since the event was running short on time we had the dance battle after the event. Dave is awesome for doing it, regardless of a shoulder injury already that made it difficult to do too much. Maybe someday will have an actual battle.

Dance battling The Buried Life may not have been on my bucket list of things to do before I die, but it is now definitely on my list of things I'll remember til the day I die. Its not everyday you challenge a crew of guys you look up to and watch on TV after all.

The 3 take aways

The Buried Life had a great presentation and here are the three things I'll remember:

1) Make your bucket list

Do it now and do it as soon as you can. The reason why when they explained it was perfect. Writing them down helps make it into reality. Once you put it down paper you can then start treating it as a project as opposed to a dream. A dream is something you have while your asleep, a project is something you work towards completing and making into a reality. 

2) Talk about it

We can accomplish more amazing things through working together  than we can on our own. That and you never know who you might meet, I've learned that lesson time and time again. Tell the world what you are looking to accomplish and the universe will create opportunities for you to accomplish it. 

For example, you could randomly receive a message that The Buried Life is coming to your city, free admission to the same conference and get an opportunity to dance battle them.

3) Don't give up

If it doesn't work the first time, try again. If it still doesn't work, try another way. From breaking into the playboy mansion, basketball with Obama and creating their own reality TV show, not giving up has been a big part of why they succeed. Persistence is key to success.

Have you created your bucket list yet and whats on it ?

Staying connected

 How are you ? Busy

As you get older it gets easier and easier to get wrapped up in work and things you need to do. Combine it with procrastination and you'll hear "I'm busy" as a reason not to take time to connect with others as well. Saying no once in a while is fine, till it becomes a a habit. 

Say no enough times and one day you'll wonder where this rift in place of that close connection you had came from. 

Relationships are like a plant. You water them and keep them strong by connecting with one another or they die as you neglect them.You are either growing closer or growing apart.

After all, change is the only constant in life. “Change is the only constant in life.”

― Heraclitus

Schedule a time just to connect with those around you. Check in with friends with a simple phone call or text message will make sure that your connections stay strong.Take that step forward for yourself and for others. Send a positive text message or a quote once in a while. Sometimes a small positive message at the right time will have an impact bigger then you imagined. It shows that you care.You'll find that with those who are appreciate will return the favor to you when you need it as well.

Ive made it a point to schedule time in my week to connect with people in my life.  During that scheduled time I look at my contact list and call my friends till one of them picks up and we have a chat. From doing this consistently I've found that I have a bigger circle of friends I can rely on and trust then before. 

It makes for a happier life.

Being yourself: Active Speaking

Photo Credits: Douglas Heriot

I want to be more of myself and 

who I really am.

I'm an introverted person and curious about other people. Everyone is so different and it can be fun learning more about those differences. As a  result I like listening to others more than talking about myself but who I am doesn't get across.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Can you hear their battle ? 

Think of people as songs, are they happy, sad, or anxious? To me everyone is on their own journey and if you listen carefully you can hear it. Relationships are all about communication and understanding one another.