The 2-3 last Fridays have been really great because almost everyone has attended the meeting. People are everywhere, some are sitting on the floor; some others on small tables, some other on the sofas and others are standing; remember this is a stand-up meeting. Most of the people are in jeans and informal on this special occasion.

The meeting usually starts with a welcome word from Thibault; our editorial coordinator. Thibault presents the next week’s schedule on what is going to be publishing on la une; when he is done comes our head of unit, Steve. Steve usually completes what Thibault has said, but sometimes he also gives some other information on the blog, -the team photo, etc.

Editorial meeting, a family gathering.

Talking about our supervisors.

Guess what? Thibault is a Frenchman, so you can imagine the prestige of a Frenchman speaking English. And as a cool French guy he sometimes uses French while speaking English. For instance: “Ze photo service” he may say. It is funny because he always uses some French words and that makes me sometimes try to realise if it is French or English that he is speaking. This is Friday and Thibault looks cool with his polo-capuchon with too different colours on. In my opinion, the best thing about Mr Thibault is that he always tries to take the best out of everyone and that is great.

Steve; the head of unit, on the other hand is always in suit and knows how to be the boss; He is gentle but for some reason you just respect him a lot. The impressive thing about Steve is his British accent. He is actually British. It is hard to say if I personally listen to what Steve is saying or if I just listen to the song given by that beautiful accent. Can you realise the position, not just he is the boss, but also he is English- by the way we use English as the communicative language at the unit. He is sometimes accompanied by David also a British singer (the accent sound as a song to me)

Everyone has a piece of paper and a pen to look professional, but they almost never quite note a thing. It is like a family gathering, everybody is happy

I do not know what really happened at the unit lately, however most of the people are there and it is cool. As I said before, people are everywhere. Evita – Steve’s assistant, usually sits on the floor with the bowler full of water that she drinks. Raffaella- the Italian editor, also sits on the floor, hands on the table while she is taking notes. Helle the Swedish editor always has her beautiful smile on and we, the trainees, usually find a place by the window or in the corner of the room to be hidden there so that no one can really see us.

Everyone has a piece of paper and a pen to look professional, but they almost never quite note a thing. It is like a family gathering, everybody is happy. It is a happy place to be and really pleasant and down-to-earth. The editorial meeting sometimes reminds me of stories I was used to hear as a little girl. These stories are about village-gatherings in the heart of the bushes in Africa where the oldest (Tibo and Steve) talk to the other family members about what will be the next move for the village. This meeting is not just for the oldest to tell the others what to do, but everyone is involved and thy have had several meetings before. This is the last one when the final decisions are made. However, thank God that the meeting is in Brussels at the EP and this is not in a village in Africa. There is no fire that we have to sit around and thanks also because even though it is cold and autumn in Brussels, we do not need to be there half naked and we do not need to dance around the fire in this beautiful and modern family gathering.

My parents and I consume the media in totally different ways yet not every media. They are the happiest TV consumers but I instead prefer news papers, books and the internet.

Yet, in my family we have one thing in common: books. We read a lot and always give each others ideas about new books that we will all buy in different languages, some of us will get it in French, some others in Swedish or may be in English, but never in Norwegian- strange because my parents live in Norway.

My parents are settled in a beautiful place in Nessoden (Norway) yet it is funny because they keep following the news from France 24 or TV5. The journal télévisé is to be sending at 8 o clock in the evening, this means that it is not allowed to call or talk to them during that time. It is especially forbidden to talk to my mom, she will never answer the phone, the door -bell, nothing. When I’m there with my sons, she becomes this weird and knotty grand -mother during the journal télévisé.

Before, I personally saw Television as a distraction; I saw it as something that stole my time away; I could live without watching TV for months, just by ignoring it. This happened until I faced a very shameful situation: We were having an examination in school on Human Rights relation to Humanitarian Intervention and this was about the US involvement in Afghanistan. The thing is that I was not quite sure that I remembered what actually the connection between these 2 countries was. The more embarrassing thing was that even younger persons knew what happened and probably even my at that time 6 years old son. Fair-enough I made the test however I decided that this should not happen again. No matter how sceptical I am against Media’s objectivity, I still have to be aware of the news around the world. I can still hear my mother saying: “I have always told you that it is important to follow the news, what kind of young person are you”?

I have shown my father the same thing several times and still he never remembers how a computer really works.

When talking about the internet, here come the “Casus Belli”- this is when conflicts of generations occurs. My father always asks about the same thing every time he has his chance: Can you show me how to open the internet and “You Tube”? This request usually makes me out of myself, because I have shown him the same thing several times and still he never remembers how a computer really works.

I have asked myself several times who I am, why I am here and why just during this time and I quickly realised that it is me who decides who I am, why I am here, where I want to go and why I ‘m doing it. Yet I have to keep in mind that it is not every dream that come to past, some do, but other never will.

Every person is a champion to me and that includes me, being the only one beside my “siblings” to win the course to my mother’s egg in her womb, I would otherwise not be alive today. Unfortunately some champions realise their dreams and other never do.

The most amazing thing with this position is that I m a little fish, but still I m a fish, because a fish is a fish….

In Sweden, before I came to Web Communication unit, everybody – especially my friends and relatives – was so amazed by the fact that I will come to the EP, they did not recognize the fact that I was about to be just a simple stagiaire – the smaller fish in the sea. The most amazing thing with this position is that I’m a little fish, but still I’m a fish, because a fish is a fish….

Never underestimate my imaginations and dreams, they can become true.

Thinking about this unit, I can see that  everyone is a champion even here. They have realised their dreams by working at the EP. I m happy to surround myself with these history-makers, and I can hear myself thinking: “if they did it, so can I”. I often remind myself of the fact that my dreams are not suppose to die just because I’m a simple trainee. I suppose that the web-com-history-makers probably had dreams about one day being able to work at the European parliament and realised it, but I can not stop thinking that they maybe have other dreams that they would want to see realised. However, are they now my inspiration, they are making me comprehend that my dreams can also be true if I just never forget about them. They are the ones that keep me a life.

Great dreams often lead you to other discoveries

The greatest thing about this dreams-theory is that, by pursuing them I know that I will realise other even greater things that I had not in mind when I started dreaming my dreams. The fact is that I wanted to be a journalist since 2 years of age and when I was admitted to the programme of media and communication it was for me a great moment.

However, after all most 2 years, the other student and I were told about the fact that it was included in the programme to study something else under a period of 1 year. I was really disappointed and decided to try with International Relations and quickly realised that it was an even greater experience than media, it was a non-but-come-true-dream, because I afterwards fall so deep in love with it. The whole world seems suddenly to be open to me, nothing could stop me now, I learned about thing that always wanted to know, such as the foreign policy of the US for instance…

It is hard sometimes to believe in oneself when every thing around seems so dark, but I know that even when the night never seems to end, the day will always come and the sun will always shine.

Soon I will be like these history-makers that I found myself surrounded with. I just have to accept the fact that I am at this the moment a simple trainee in this unit, even so I believe that I’m a person that others will want to be surrounded with, because I’m a big dreamer and have a lot of crazy but probably interesting ideas in my mind. I believe that together we can help each other’s dreams come to pass.

A history-maker does not have to study history at a PhD level, he can be someone like Ikea’s founder who started is business by repairing furniture that he founded abandoned on the street. Today IKEA is one of the most visited furniture’s companies in the whole world.

I was born in Liège, Belgium, in a family of six children. My father was an engineer in hydro-geology from a university in Holland and my mother was a nurse. Studying was very important while growing up but I was really rebellious as a kid. I hated everything that had to do with studying. I loved make-up instead and other such things.

I met my husband in the Congo and shortly after we got engaged he moved to Sweden as a refugee and then everything changed.

It gradually dawned on me that I was different, that I was not like everybody else.

I moved to Sweden one year after my husband, we got married and settled in a beautiful place near Gothenburg. I still remember greeting my neighbour in the morning and getting no reply. Everything was new – the marriage, the house, the town and the country. I got pregnant and quickly met some friends that also were expecting babies. I did not realise how serious everything was about to be. I wanted to be a journalist, but the door seemed closed to me because I could not speak Swedish. However, I started studying the language and later on was admitted to the University of Gothenburg and loved what I was doing.

Diversity at EP during European Youth Media Day

It gradually dawned on me that I was different, that I was not like everybody else. I soon found out that when somebody looked at me, the only thing they could see at first was that I am a black girl. I noticed this through the questions that always followed any new meeting that I had. The thing is, when I wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror, what I see is just a beautiful girl and nothing else. And suddenly I realised that what others saw when they looked at me was the colour of my skin. In other people’s eyes, I was black… I was different, especially since most of the people around me had blond hair. It bothered me that everybody asked me where I came from, why I chose to live in Sweden, etc. I always tried to answer those questions by babbling around, never quite knowing myself what the answers were, because I felt that I did not know where I really came from and why my husband and I had chosen to stay in Sweden.

Coming to the European Parliament in Brussels

This was another experience. I never knew that I was actually a Swede before I was selected as a trainee by the European Parliament.  I was told about this one condition that I had to have a citizenship in a country that is a member of the EU, because it was the only way of having the possibility to be a trainee in the European Parliament. It was really bizarre to find out that I was a Swede with black skin. I have heard that in some countries, such as France for instance, you are a French citizen when you adopt the French ideology, but in some other European countries you will never become a citizen of that particular country, unless you are born as a citizen.

This place was not like university where I could leave after lunchtime, because the afternoon teacher would probably be boring and I was tired.

I moved to Belgium and started my traineeship on the first of September in the European Parliament, at the DG Com-munication and Web Unit. Everything was new, but I quickly realised that suddenly my life as a student was getting really serious. This was actually really the European Parliament; you got a badge for entrance because there is security to the top of your teeth, the lunch room is full of very respectable, impressive and important persons, and the ladies are beautiful in their high heels. I love heels and have often been the only one among my Swedish friends that use them, and suddenly I found myself confused and happy at the same time that I would not have to be alone in wearing them. In this serious environment I realise that I have to be on time, I have to be humble and cannot go home when I feel like doing it. This place was not like university where I could leave after lunchtime, because the afternoon teacher would probably be boring and I was tired.

Suddenly something came to my mind: Wait a minute! I am still just a black girl in the eyes of others? I could not give an answer to that, but I remember that just the thought of it scared me and made me, without any justification, feel really sceptical. The feeling comes back to me of wanting to protect myself from my “oppressors”, despite the fact that others are probably not interested in the fact that I am black. The most horrible battle begins within me – the memories of war in the Congo mixed with the strange idea that I would prefer war to the feeling of being considered as “just a black person”, always having to prove to others that I am more than just that – that behind the black face there is a smart girl, a person with personality, with feelings and a heart that also needs to be appreciated.

The silly thing about this battle is that other people probably do not think about the fact that I am black at all, and also that in a big official organisation like the European Parliament, there is not supposed to be discrimination of any kind: sex, colour, disability etc. Human rights are very important here. So why worry about me being the only black person in the whole unit? Why all this thinking instead of just being me, and feel accepted for what I am? This reminds me of my time as a young girl. While living in Belgium with my parents, I was always considered as a Congolese, but when I went back to the Congo, I was considered too European and not really like everybody else. When moving to Sweden I was once again the “where-are-you-from-girl” and then in Brussels I’m the Swede-Cong-Belgian girl. In the end I have this big revelation that I am welcome to the unit, people are just beautiful and friendly here and it is a happy place, full of wonderful persons.