Another great Enactus year has passed and as I met the team over the Certificate Distribution Ceremony , I realized how everything is different but nothing has changed. The team is bigger, the smiles are broader, the voices are louder and the spirits are higher, but still nothing has changed. As an alumnus, I am glad that Enactus gives me these opportunities to come back to college every few months. But this year, it was particularly heartening to see alumni across 5 generations present to cheer the current batch.
As the chief guest mentioned, we have a great set of alumni at enviable positions. I can’t agree more that the job profiles are enviable, but an incident this morning brought everything into perspective and made me ask myself this year’s theme question - ‘What is an identity?’. When I reached college, I met one of our first set of Life On Wheels rickshaw pullers. He greeted me fondly, told me that his rickshaw is still going strong and that he is looking out for newer technologies to upgrade. I was glad that his savings from the micro-finance scheme permitted him to be enthusiastic about affording new technology – even for something as basic as a rickshaw. When the college guard asked me to show my ID, the rickshaw puller shouted out –‘Purane bachee hain, inko nai rok sakte. Jaane do.’ Yes, we may be at enviable positions, but it was his fondness for me and not my current position that was my identity to seamlessly wade me into the place I belong the most.
All batches past and present have worked hard year after year to make Enactus SRCC what it is today. Their success stories and ability to work so hard for the communities, makes us proud and comforts us that what we initiated is in good hands today. To the new members on the team - be sincere, absorb and embrace the experience. Very soon, you shall realize how deeply Enactus shapes your thinking. How every little thing around you presents a latent opportunity that only you seem to comprehend amongst your peers. And how every minute, every day you subconsciously tend to think about improving your projects and the lives of the people they impact. Yes, there are hundreds of things you can gain from the experience but only if you stop looking for them. Give up the selfishness and just go with the flow.
As someone pointed out –In Enactus, the balance between what you give to the society and what you get from it always weighs heavier towards the latter. Despite passing out a couple of years ago, I feel I get so much through the Enactus experience and its expanding network even today. On my part I make sure I attend events like this in my attempt to inspire as many of you as possible to sincerely be a part of this journey and balance what I owe to it. But I get so much love and respect each time I go back that the balance just seems to sink further away.
-Mehak Nanner
Enactus Batch of 2009-2012
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