Spending all your time trying to bully sections into action, using all your own money to travel to weekend meetings, reading endless documents from the InfoCentre. Is this really the life of an NR?
Not in my eyes. There are so many positive things about being a National Representative, a lot are cliches but this doesn't alter their validity. How often do you get to explore a European city with 33 different nationalities for a start.
Perhaps the most satisfying thing about being a National Representative is that you constantly and quickly see the rewards of your hard work. When you have spent two hours promoting ESN Cards, a section will finally take the plunge...when you have sent 10 emails, a new potential section will appear out of the blue. Over the 8 months of being NR, I have seen day to day results which give me motivation to keep going and achieve more.
Although there is no point coming home from the day job and working on NR duties until the early hours of the morning, without the work of the Internatioal Board and the CNR, ESN would collapse rapidly. I am still honoured and proud that I represent the United Kingdom at anything whether it be stamp collecting or vodka drinking. However, it is even better that it is representing the UK with a fantastic organisation like ESN. Surely though being elected is not enough, when I haven't contributed to my Working Groups or contacted my sections for a while...I am almost embarassed into work,how can I apply for a big job and talk endlessly in the interview about my grand job with ESN when deep down, I know that I havent achieved anything for months and months.
These are just some of the factors that motivate me as NR...more to follow from the NR of the best performing European Olympic team :).
