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Newbie Liaison Officer

Being selected as a liaison officer for World Conference on Tourism and Culture was an one-in-a-lifetime experience for me. This was my first time in completing this task. Moreover, this was a very special first-time for me since I was assigned to be a LO for delegates from Saudi Arabia. I was so excited but also felt a heavy burden on my shoulders because the head of delegate is crown prince of Saudi Arabia -- His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz. Well, things are not always go our way. There are many plot-twisted after getting to the reality.

Since there were a large number of delegates would come from Saudi Arabia, another guy who was also responsible for Saudi Arabia suggested that we work together and I agreed. That was the turning point which led this whole thing to the direction that is totally opposite from my imagination.

There were so many lessons learnt from this experience. First of all, never trust anyone. I did and it was a terrible mistake. I was too naive to believe that what I saw and heard was the reality. Yet, the truth is reality never exist in a singular form. It differs from the perspective we are looking at. Usually, there are so many aspects of the reality that is blocked from the position we are standing. So, always expect the unexpected! Nothing is impossible. I remembered when I complained about how he not giving me enough information and he responded: "So you are saying it was my fault?"

Then, it is about teamwork. To success as a team, the each team member has to have only one goal, and they have to work their best to achieve the goal. In my case, I ignored the potential goal of the other guy and choose to believe his goal was the same as mind because he said so. It was so ridiculous that when I asked him about which ministry the delegate he should responsible for was from and he simply shrugged and said: "I don't know either." Obviously, it was not his goal to facilitate all the delegates from Saudi Arabia, but only one.

Third, trust your intuition! It is not always right, but most of the time it is for me. I felt something fishy from the beginning, yet decided to watch what happened afterward would match with what my instinct had told me. And once again, I was proved that I should believe in it. On the way of location scouting, he jokingly said on the bus with other LOs that: "Cheata was looking at the female Arabic assistant constantly, like never took her eyes off, while the leader and I were working so hard catching what they were saying and taking notes."

I would say this was a wonderful experience for me. I had a great time knowing new people and have learnt more about various human behaviors. And that I should notice the details and believe my judgement. Of course, I am now completely understand what LO does, and how to do a better job. To conclude, this valuable experience taught me a lot about LO work, as well as giving me shocking life lessons, for which I am sure I will be grateful afterward for having joint this wonderful event.

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