Today I returned to high school. Ayke and me were giving a presentation of DAA's work and history to a class at SIHA School in Antwerp. It was like a jump back to the past from the very beginning because my alarm clock didn't ring this morning - a classic. I had woke up 10 minutes before I had the tram to town so, when I arrived at the school, my mood was pretty similar as during my high-school years. At the same time I was going to speak from the other side of the desk, for the first time ever. Panic! At least my face's expression wasn't showing anything. I think Ayke and I gave a good presentation, we also showed some T-shirts from 2009 'Fashion Against AIDS' collection with H&M and the students were pretty interested. Some of them also asked a couple of questions, but in all they were very shy. I have to admit I over-estimated my attitude to interact with an ‘audience', especially if we're talking about teenagers.
I realized that to arise interest in HIV awareness matters can be very difficult and this is a proof of the high value of DAA work. I also wonder if these boys and girls were feeling the pressure more from us or from the other students they were with. Being a youngster is a magic moment in everyone's life and at the same time so difficult. You are becoming an adult, everything is changing, you're experiencing many things for the first time in your life... Some people still miss this period, others are just happy that it ends eventually.
We received a greeting email from them (their teacher told them to write it) and I found it really nice, considering who the authors are you can't expect statements of affection of any kind. Here it is: "It was a very interesting presentation. It was brought fluently and it was very clear but the tempo was a little bit too high and speaking a little bit louder would be appreciated. The presentation of the T-shirts was a nice touch. Perhaps we would have liked to make our own slogans, like you do at festivals. We thought we would have gotten some more talks about sex education. We liked Matteo's design about the dickhead. Hope to see you again next year. We wish you the best of luck with the new collection".
Bye guys.