The Kick-In; Ilse looks back

Imagine.. At a certain point in your AEGEE career, on a Tuesday night at Asterion, you decide to change your life forever; you’ll take place in the Kick-In committee of AEGEE-Enschede. You’ll step into a rollercoaster together with six other members and suddenly your life is turned upside down. Your favourite colours will be orange and black for the next six months, you’ll only think about all the (im)possible things that can help promote AEGEE-Enschede and you turn into an truss-expert.

The whole association is critical about every step you take and is wondering about what you’re doing at the office. And above that, you’ll discover that the office definitely needs an airco. Ilse Latour, president of the Kick-In committee, is giving us an impression of the busy life of the committee.

The committee

“The members of our committee are very much alike, but there is almost always one person that is different than the others. For our teambuilding, we wanted to go to Walibi because we all like the thrill. On the day we planned, Annemiek was (too) late because she was afraid of the rollercoasters. Steyn didn’t go at all, because he broke his leg. We still wanted him to go with us, because we then could use the wheelchair entrance, but it didn’t happen.”

“Within our committee it’s not a woman that’s on a diet; it’s Fabrice. Every day he ate watermelon, even though he is afraid of water and rain. Even during the Kick-In, Fabrice could be found at the gym on Sunday(!) morning. Do you want some advice about getting in shape? Don’t try it in Dutch, because Fabrice can express himself much better in English. This came in very handy with our bi-lingual promotion material. Don’t ask Fabrice something about Belgian jokes, because he doesn’t get the clue.”

“Without Lianne there would have been a lot more stress in the committee. She always has the overview and is always on time. For Lianne, it sometimes was frustrating that the other members didn’t have these qualities. By now she got used to it and she even uses the ‘AEGEE quarter’ sometimes. I could learn a lot from Lianne, especially on the early (slightly hungover) mornings when I couldn’t get a proper overview. To mask this lack of overview I became the cover model for our Instagram account. This way, it looked like I was always working hard.”

“Marlijn practiced het baking skills a lot during the preparations for the Kick-In. The committee found this very annoying, because they had to taste al that cake every time. They weren’t allowed to go home before they ate the whole cake. As a result, Fabrice had to go to the gym more and eat less water melon. Kevin didn’t need the extra motivation of cake to go to the office during the holiday. This was the second time he organized the Kick-In, but this didn’t demotivate him. He liked us so well that he was always happy to spend his days with us.”

The Kick-In

Before and during the Kick-In, AEGEE-Enschede was present at most of the activities and parties. Without the committee this wouldn’t have been possible. On the social media we’ve already seen behind the scenes material, but Ilse looks back especially for the people who’ve missed this.

“Steyn was responsible for the script. He spent every day on this giant puzzle. He was someone we could count on, but when there was an event at his hometown everything had to give way and Steyn was gone for a week in the days before the Kick-In. He came back with an even worse accent than before. During the Kick-In you could see Steyn also liked to be ‘Arie’ in our A-suit. He was so enthusiastic, his happy dance even made it to the official Kick-In aftermovie.”

“When we look back to the Kick-In, we’re very happy with the results. Together, we had the best working atmosphere. We were there for each other on the good and bad moments. Sometimes there were little frustrations, but we could help each other on those moments. For example, Marlijn couldn’t function without a script anymore. Steyn was so nice to even make her one during the faculty Kick-In. Marlijn functioned perfect on those days and had drinks with friends exactly ‘till 1 o’clock.”

The Kick-In went very well thanks to the Kick-In committee, but without the help of our members it would have looked very different. With this lookback we want to thank you for all your efforts. Together we show the students how awesome AEGEE-Enschede is!