During the study of Business Economics, in the first 2 years I will mainly get to know my fellow students and those who teach. In addition to the courses that are given, a project is started every six months that must contain substantive components of all the courses that I received in those six months plus the subject that it concerns. The creativity of types of companies that I want to set up is often solved by walking in Amsterdam or telling each other small pieces from our background. In particular, the background in which I differ from my studybuddies creates a bond in one way or another, making the projects run so smoothly. There is room for discussion and addressing each other about behavior related to the project. The smooth running of the project is mainly due to the confidence that I create in working together. It is agreed in advance who does what and who is the project manager and when something should be finished.
In the later years too, the projects are smooth running when the group dynamics are broken and I start carrying out projects with other economic studies of Hes Amsterdam or on behalf of organizations, the cooperation in working together is better than I encounter later in working life or entrepreneurship.
What surprises me is that not all are graduating at the same time, but I would recognize all those faces that I have worked with in the first two years. I am grateful that I learned how projects should be done there, but in work as money, power relations, elbows, etc play a part, I noticed that those projects were a simulation. The working life can also be translated into real life. Also there there is that balance to find and keep and sometimes the envy, growing apart, not letting go, etc. Actually the misunderstanding of each other in life outside of work and in work!
I don’t want to go back to the protected environment that my friends were in Eindhoven at that time and to study Business Economics, but I am curious about how they are doing in life. And whether they are at a crossroads again in their lives. I know now that I don't recognize most of the people I studied with or went to school with. And that letting go of the past is the best thing I ever did in my life!!
*Hogeschool Economische Studies Amsterdam ( HES Amsterdam) merged in 2004. I graduated in the summer of 2004, before the merger.