A while ago someone recommended this page to me on Facebook: Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change. I realised that there is some truth in it. We hear it on the radio and television how everyone wants the economy to improve, but what are we actually doing to better the financial situation we are in? Everyone wants to make a change, but are we taking the first step?
Change seems to be the only constant thing; it is happening all around us, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. However, we all seem to want to change the world, anyway. Most of us have probably heard the story of the man and the starfish, but for those who haven’t, here it goes.
A man was walking along the beach and starfish were washed up on the shoreline. Occasionally, as he was walking along, he would bend down, pick up a starfish and gently toss it back in the sea. A man asked him what difference he was making by tossing a couple of them back when there were thousands on the shore. He bent down to pick up another one, and smiling he said to this man, “It made a big difference for that one.”
This story portrays precisely what most of us feel – we feel we are too irrelevant to actually make the change. Alone, we can only make a small difference but together we can impact the world. This is where AEGEE steps in, the organization which promotes cooperation, communication and integration. Founded in Paris in 1985, today it is present in 40 European countries working towards a common goal of one Europe.
Encouraging mobility between European countries and organising seminars and meetings all around Europe, AEGEE is the ideal platform for students to join together and strive for a better world. Together we can walk further, than we can walk alone.
Nelson Mandela once said: “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.” Perhaps, now is the time for us to be that great generation.
Written by Felicity Rayner, AEGEE-Valletta
Photograph by Stephanie Müller, AEGEE-Heidelberg & Deniz Özhan, AEGEE-Izmir