Memoirs of an IB Member

Prologue

My name is Gaffar, and I’m an ESNer.

For two years, from Summer 2015 to 2017, I was a board member of the Erasmus Student Network — a volunteer-led organisation that promotes and supports youth mobility of all kinds. It was an adventure almost indescribable; so full of stories, emotions and memories.

For two years, my fellow board members and I dedicated our lives to serving and working alongside thousands of volunteers from 40 countries all around Europe. We worked long days and late nights, and thought nothing of losing most of our weekends to carrying out our duties.

The people we’ve met and worked with, the experiences we’ve gone through, the constant roller coaster that was our lives — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It seems such a shame to leave it all behind without chronicling it. Without sharing all the beautiful memories that we still hold near and dear.

Before my Board and I finished our mandates, I had often joked about writing a book entitled ‘Memoirs of an IB Member’. The idea began earnestly in the aftermath of an exhilarating AGM Germany 2017, with a casual series of Facebook posts hashtagged #CMperspectives / #AGMstories.

This one’s for all the people I’ve had the honour and privilege of working alongside.

3 months after officially handing over my duties as Communication Manager of ESN, I look back with a grin at a network that has given me so much, and look on with pride at a new generation that has taken the torch. It is now time to share, to inspire, to motivate, and to use my history to drive the future.

This will be a collection of behind-the-scenes stories to let you in on what it’s like to lead a large student organisation — to be part of one of Europe’s biggest youth movements. It’s a coming-of-age tale of achievements and struggles, of seeking successes in the 21st century. I’ve decided to write it in the form of prose — in the style of stream-of-consciousness writing, to attempt to capture the narratives of the past two years in its purest form.

This one’s for all the people I’ve had the honour and privilege of working alongside. For all my friends and family that have always supported me, despite not fully understanding what it is that I did. For the ones who stood by my side through thick and thin, and helped me live this experience.

Now is the time to make ‘Memoirs’ a reality.

There will be laughter.

There will be tears.

There will be memories so vivid you will almost be able to touch them.

Stay tuned for Chapter 1.