All I can remember from the night before the conference is how ferociously I had been reading
through my presentation notes, hoping and praying to whoever is out there that everything
would be just fine. The second years had warned me that the Uzbek students had a reputation
for delivering stellar presentations and I was hoping to follow in their shine. I was just glad that
as one of the first presenters, I would be able to hurry through and be forgotten by at least lunch
time.
The presentation I was a part of briefly summarised the trip to New York a few of my fellow DEN
members and I were going to go on. I was tasked with summarising why the trip was so
important. Allowing myself to cave in was not an option and I had to push through my nerves
which led to me completely missing out a page of my notes and going on a tangent on how the
idea of the trip even came about. As I walked to the back of the line of speakers with my head in
my hands, I couldn’t help but feel absolutely defeated and that dreaded feeling of impending
doom had yet again encompassed my entire nervous system. Every single word uttered by my
fellow presenters had become a buzzing sound and it felt as if my entire world was collapsing
around me. Once I returned to my seat a small ping sound came from my phone, it was a
message from Farhang who said “ You are a very good speaker”. It was as if a weight had fallen
off my shoulders and as though my world had finally found colour. I let out a relieved sigh and
felt the humdrum of doubt in my head completely subside. It’s kind words following what you
may believe to be a dreadful performance that can really aid a person in their day.
My favourite part of the entire day was definitely the end of the formal conference, not because
of the back pain acquired from sitting down all day, but because of all the fun and good food that
was anticipated. I had also been tasked alongside a few of my friends to create a quiz that was
to be completed by the students, and whilst it was a painstakingly egregious task, the end result
couldn’t have been any better. Seeing all the students from different backgrounds come together
in groups, speaking to people they’d never imagine to converse with displays how powerful
coming together and sharing a platform can be, shouting at one another and calling out
incorrect answers, it was almost as if we had been friends for many, many years.The DEN conference was an incredible opportunity to not only showcase the months of work
put together but see different students from different communities and countries coming
together, working together and purely enjoying eachothers company. Whilst it took extraordinary
efforts to organise the running of the conference, to which I hugely applaud the second years,
seeing everybody laughing and talking put an end to all of the nerves I had running up to the
conference and truly cemented a collective joy in all of us.
Suheyla Coskun