It is Monday the 31th of August. With the start of a new study, a new period of experiences starts for me.

When I chose this study my first thought was, am I going for the easy way or the hard way? I was faced with the choice to choose the Dutch version or the International English version.               

Making this choice was not very difficult, because what could be more fun than an international study with people from all over the world. The only thing that stopped me was the English part of the education.             

That is one of the points I tried to focus on as much as possible in the first block, improving my English and trusting that I can really speak English well.        

The first online meeting with the class was a relief for me. Everyone was nervous about meeting everyone, but soon it turned out that we are a group of people who have many shared interests. I believe this has helped me in my development as a person during this period.   

There has never really been a barrier to speaking English. From the moment we first got into class I had to speak English and the process of adapting went very quickly. In addition, the fact that I quickly felt at ease in this class contributed to the fact that I no longer felt insecure about my English qualities. This also meant that I quickly felt free to just start a conversation with people. I expected that I would have difficulty with that, but in practice that has not happened. So this has been a very positive discovery for my development.

When we talk about what I could have done differently, is the fact that sometimes I check things three times in the translation app before sending a message, even though I had written it right at first. I also found out that I automatically look up everything in Dutch in google or other search engines. I actually want to change this automatic action. Instead of looking up everything in Dutch, I would like to look up things in English. To ensure this I have set my search engines to English. I no longer see this as a challenge, but rather as an opportunity. In English there are so many more reports, researches and opinions expressed. These developments are therefore only positive.

What I would like to change is the default language of my phone to English. I learned from my father that in this way you can communicate even more easily internationally.

Sport Sociology

This was the very first lecture we had. From the first moment this profession appealed to me. From the history of different sports to the behaviour of people in combination with sports. I was immediately interested in the way Tina gave her lessons. I think this helped our class a lot to get to know each other online.

Examples of this are discussions that we had to have and take positions. For me personally, this was one of the most instructive subjects that I can also see in my final result. This is mainly because the topics appeal to me and I like to read books and store information.

What I have mainly learned in this profession is that each country has its own history and the combination of the origin of sports and the associated sports culture.

Sport & Identity

To be honest, this was the profession I had the most difficulty with at the beginning. I did not fully understand the added value of some assignments and was therefore unmotivated on some points. My perseverance came up in this profession, which meant that I wanted to do well. Because it was sometimes unclear what the assignment was, I wanted to do everything we had to do. All in all, I was able to use my creativity for the final assignment, which I enjoy doing. By completing the final assignment I got to know myself better, was able to think about my goals, and got to know my fellow students a lot better.

Sport events

This was the first course where we had to work together in groups. My goal in this course was to learn to communicate with new people and thereby show my own qualities. Of course a new challenge with international students. Beforehand I had decided to just see how my new group was. We soon found out that we could easily work together and understand each other in what we were doing. This made the process a lot easier and we could achieve our predetermined goals. Because we had all three other qualities, we were able to respond well to them and to achieve the best possible result together. Before, I wouldn't have suggested doing something myself that I know I'm good at, but I'm glad I didn't this time.

Event management

This was one of the courses I was really looking forward to. The subjects appealed to me because I myself sat for a while in the party committee of HC de Hondsrug and had to organize an event several times. Because there was still a lot to learn, I was happy with this profession. Because Tina's lectures were so beautifully arranged, I was able to learn a lot from this profession, in particular how to properly subdivide an event and apply other knowledge directly to the Sport Events course. Learning this trade was therefore easy and I am very satisfied with the end result that I managed to achieve.

Coaching

The course with a large assignment and various small assignments around it. What I liked about this course, as with the other courses, is that we were allowed to be ourselves. The teachers were seriously interested in everyone and everyone's stories. Sometimes certain assignments took too long for me personally, I was then quickly finished and because of that my concentration dropped at certain times. I have to work to keep my concentration at such times. I can do this by working on the final assignment or other separate assignments. What I have learned more from this profession is that everyone has their own qualities and you have to appreciate them. I have grown to love and respect the international aspect more and more. My view of how people from other countries think about life has improved.

Conclusion

When we look at the big picture of the first block, I can conclude that it went pretty well. I made personal progress during the first block in the way of opening myself to my classmates. I think that’s because we all have a good connection with each other. I also learned a lot about the world of sports and what to expect in the future.