“A journey through a notebook” by Julia Trudos - Regents’ Column
Every Thursday we pass the floor to one of the Regents. The Regents are the driving force behind the International Student Leadership Institute. They wear many hats: from crafting presentations to orchestrating the Olympics and leading interest groups. Without the Regents, there is no ISLI. Through this column they get a chance to take the center stage of our website to share insights, experiences and reflections. Every week, Regents from the past and the present take you on a journey through leadership, learning and the vibrant spirit that defines the very heart of ISLI. This week, Julia Trudos shares her memories as a participant at ISLI 2023.
I can’t really conceive the idea that I first went to ISLI this year. It feels like a decade has passes since, yet I still hold the experience dearly in my heart. Before I came to ISLI, I bought a notebook thinking I would use it to note down presentation topics and themes. Don’t get me wrong – I did note stuff down. But I only did that during the time we were actually working on the presentations and their matter. Instead, that notebook became kind of a journal for me.
In the Shadows of the Oberwesel Castle
I used to write about what I was thinking during the presentations, and about how people made me feel. But specially, I did a lot of writing every lunch break. We had a lot of opportunities to interact during lunch break. Although it doesn’t seem like it, I’m an extremely introspective person. That’s why I would go to the castle every day to just sit on the ledge.
I would watch the people go by. New groups of friends. And how they talked and smiled at each other. Or how they just looked exhausted but content to have been able to be there on the last day. I never let anyone know I could see them – most people don’t look up anyways. I am now sitting with that same notebook open before me. On day one I had already filled out a couple of pages. The first page is about a conversation I had with some colleagues of my own school. They were nice girls and I had always wanted to be closer to them. Actually, ISLI was the most talking I ever did to most people from my own school. I thought I would meet new people, but I also met people I had been coexisting with for the past two years.
ISLI Feels like a Family to me
I then wrote about how caring our Regents and the Board Members were when a participant wasn’t feeling well. “Drink water guys!” was the motto for ISLI 2023. How that person must have appreciated the respect and privacy they granted her.
“We had only four days to interact. Why would we not make the most of it?”
At night I wrote about my roommates and how I was glad my room had such nice girls. Even though I don’t normally make friends that easily. I was worried about coming across as a bit standoffish, like I wouldn’t know how to make new friends.
Though, we were all in the same boat. We were all strangers, we were all together in it. We had no idea what ISLI actually was and what to expect. We had only four days: four days to interact, to meet new people and be ourselves without the strings and labels attached to us back at home. Then.. Why would we not make the most of it? In the end, that room and those roommates would become one of the highs in ISLI for me.
Julia Trudos was a participant at ISLI 2023 and got elected to represent Germany as one of their Regents at ISLI 2024. At the time of writing, she is 17 years old and a senior in high school. She pursues to study psychoanalysis or psychology in the future.
