Day 4 [Jan 7]

My group headed to CMU for a guest lecture on globalization by one of the professors. It was indeed an eye-opener to get to understand the impact from the perspective of Chiangmai. We planned to conduct a focus group discussion with some of the CMU students as arranged by May, our CMU attached student, during lunch. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to change our plans for the day due to the tight schedule. I was initially upset about how things did not fall into place like how it should have. More specifically I was feeling very apologetic about cancelling on the CMU students that we have initially arranged to meet. However, my takeaway from this harsh lesson was that most of the time in life, things will not go as planned. As a scholar and a leader, we must always stay calm in such circumstances and find the next best alternative. It taught me flexibility and sacrifice as we had to constantly edit our plans to take any changes in our stride.

The Leadership Session cum amazing race proved to be a good break from our research project. I really enjoyed the activity as it was really different and more fun navigating and playing the challenges in a different country. Moreover, during the amazing race, we managed to highlight a few places that we can consider returning to because of the sights it  offered. The leadership activity offered me a lot of insights on the type of people my group mates are. This allowed me to analyse the group dynamics and guide me on how to behave appropriately around them. I have always been very interested in human behavioural studies so usually I will try to assess someone’s behavior during our first meeting and try to adjust mine to make them feel comfortable around me. The activity also gave me the opportunity to reflect on the type of leader I am, allowing me to address my weaknesses and know my own strengths.