I’m currently on the flight back from Timor Leste after completing the conference so I thought this would be the perfect time to reflect on the entire process from initial delegate selection to when we said goodbye. This process has been incredibly challenging emotionally, we have been sharing our experiences almost continuously and some stories have been incredibly shocking and humbling. However, we have all bonded tremendously because of this we have all exchanged phone numbers and there were a lot of tears as we left. I think this experience has taught me how to be a lot more empathetic than I was before and how to deal with these situations as I had never found myself in a similar situation before and at first I was lost as to how to respond.

The planning itself was an incredibly challenging process as I had never planned an event before, forget a conference! I have never been more grateful to my team than I have throughout this process as I am certain the entire thing would have fallen apart without everyone’s incredible work ethic and contributions both throughout the planning stage to the final conference where we continuously helped out others on their theme days rather than leaving them to fend for themselves. This whole process has been incredibly beneficial and eyeopening for me and I am excited to carry these skills and experiences into the future.