By Geertruid Peene

Exhausted I sat down besides the Macedonian river one day during the SIB-Trip to the Balkan two months ago. “Are you already done with all things SIB-related?” someone asked, while offering me one of those enormous plastic bottles of Macedonian beer. It was night, it was Easter and there were no open bars or clubs to be found. The owner of the hostel we were staying at had sent us off to get drunk next to a river, which should have been slightly worrying in other circumstances. I looked around and saw the group of people I got to know so well in these past days. Some were quarrelling about political stuff, some were making up dangerous plans to climb buildings during the night and some were just extremely drunk. “No, of course not” I heard myself say and I thought about my upcoming interview for the next Board of the SIB.

For those who do not know me yet, my name is Geertruid Peene and I am truly grateful that I have been granted the opportunity to become the next Treasurer of the SIB. I have been a member of this beautiful association for almost two years now and made tons of amazing memories like the one I mentioned earlier. The lectures I organised together with the Activities Committee, the trip to Russia and Estonia, joining a dispuut, organising and surviving a trip to the Balkans; they are only a few of the things I got to experience through this association.

When I came to Groningen during the KEI-Week there was not a day on which I would not encounter the enthusiastic KEI-crew of the SIB. Their stories about the lectures, trips and other activities was the main reason I signed up to become a member. Another reason are the amazing members that create such an open and welcoming atmosphere. The diversity in members of the SIB make the association a beautiful, diverse and unique association and I am more than thrilled to collect new memories with my fellow candidate Board members and all of you in the upcoming year.

There remains one question that has been asked so many times after the numerous occasions on which one particular clumsy part of me had been noticed by several of you. For this special occasion of writing my first blogpost I will answer them: “Yes, it did hurt when I fell from heaven.” But as one very wise person once said:  ” Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall…”