Inas Zeineddine
Nationality: Lebanese
Living in: Beirut, Lebanon
Programmes: ILP 2009
WYSE? It is When Your Self Expands. Arriving at the ILP in Lucca that day, I expected everything except what happened. Some may call it a workshop or a learning experience, but it can only be called WYSE. A unique setting offering a combination of beyond-expectation experiences conducted by professional and passionate mentors, who always succeeded in engaging us until we were the experience ourselves.
The twelve-day programme created a major turning point in my life and triggered a butterfly effect. After over three years now, the WYSE self of mine has not ceased to be and it is even expanding. Each year, my understanding grows bigger and I still fetch my WYSE purse when making professional and life decisions.
My story started in the summer of 2009, when WYSE transformed my dreams to goals and got me started with step one. Eight months later, I was preparing for a scholarship programme in three European countries. After a year, I was already in Europe when I received the letter that I wrote to myself in WYSE and it was a concrete translation of the impact of WYSE on my life.
What WYSE programmes offer is timeless and will not expire. It is a package of light designed and conveyed to fit in any situation and it is carried in the back of the mind acting like a torch that guides through all the way. It is a universal key to a deeper understanding of the decision-making process that opens all doors for clearer planning and stronger actions, thus a key for change.
A change that starts from within us and stretches beyond. A change that was once thought to be a wishful idea to a change that is tangible and within reach. A change that is created, executed and realized by us.
Cultural, national or traditional differences melt down in this programme. It felt like we all connected to a WYSE self which allowed us to identify and relate to each other. This self is so precious you do not want to shed it off afterwards. I admire that WYSE spreads the WYSE selves around the globe each year and I am fortunate to be one of them.