Hey!

After having procrastinated enough, people can now also read my board story! So let’s start at the beginning:

I’m Justus, at the moment of writing I’m 21 years old. The same time ago I was born without any problems on the 16th of February in 1998 at my home in Kampen, which is also where I’ve lived until my student years. That moment was also the moment when my brother and two sister were blessed with a nice little brother. Not too much later however, they found out that because of my arrival another inhabitant had to leave the house: I was allergic to the cat. That ended the long period of time in which my parents had owned pets.

Then we skip a few years of which I don’t have many memories, and arrive at my time in primary school. At my school they were quickly done with me in my second year, as I skipped a year. (Despite this I’m not a year older than most other people that started studying in my year! Keep reading and find out why!) Like most boys of that age that have an older brother, I also had many fights with my brother during this time. Most of these fights came forth from discussions about whom could use the computer when. From a young age I spent almost all of my free time playing computer games, which has really only changed a bit once I started my studies. Something else that I did for a long time was playing football. At some point I even dreamt of becoming a professional football player… So young and so naive. All in all my time in primary school was not very special, but I suppose it was fun nonetheless.

And then came the oh so formative time at high school. Like many kids of my reformed primary school, I also went to the (also reformed) Greijdanus college in Zwolle. It started out fun, and after a year I even went to the gymnasium class. This second year at high school was slightly less fun, as at that moment I was still quite introverted and thus an easier target to bully. This is also exactly what happened, but I managed to get through the year without any lasting issues. After having chosen to leave the gymnasium class behind me once I had the choice, my interests started to develop towards mathematics and computer science. Those then also became the two studies from which I had to pick for my study choice.

As I was an introverted person at the end of my time in high school, I was still fearing the start of my student time quite a bit. Also because I loathed having to start studying hard immediately, I simply delayed the start of my studies by a year! Before I started studying I worked for the larger part of a year and, in contrast to most people that took a gap year, did not spend the money on a large trip. I mean, I already feared starting my studies, not to mention going on a large trip! No, I spent part of the money I earned to build my own computer. Despite my interest in computers I still chose to study mathematics though.

After having looked up to it for a long time the time had come: I had to start my studies. At this moment in time I still expected to focus on my studies and be finished five years later. But first I had to survive the Kick-In. My worries were quickly gone with the first evening of the Kick-In behind my back and an unknown amount of beer down my throat. A few weeks later my student life started to form itself as I joined the Freshmen committee. It did not take very long for me to get to know most people at Abacus. The need for a room in Enschede also became bigger and bigger, as I wanted to stay at Abacus activities until late in the evening more regularly, without having to find a place to sleep in someone else’s house. Very fitting I then moved to Enschede on Liberation day. So now it was time to become more active at Abacus. It did not take long before I joined the Ab-Actie and the CoCo, and even start thinking about whether I would like to do a board year. In my second year I then also became active in the Twick-In and the TranslaCie. The decision to apply for a board year was also already taken far in advance. Then everything went quite quickly and suddenly I found myself in the position of Intern and Education in the board of Abacus.

I hope I’ve given you a somewhat complete picture of how I got here, and I’m happy to say that Abacus really is a place where I’ve felt at home during my student time up until now.

If you are looking for someone to talk to about computers, gaming, esports, Formula 1, or music: those are things I can talk about for ages, so feel free to approach me at Abacus if you have quite some time to kill. If you have less time it might be a better idea to talk about something else.

As some people know I’m good at making stories longer than what is usually necessary, and this story is a great example of that. So congratulations on getting to the end, and thanks for reading!

Kind regards,

Justus Sleurink
Officer Internal Affairs and Officer Educational Affairs of the 51st board.