What a ride.

Last few weeks have been an emotional journey for me. Finishing Startup Journey 2017 with a fantastic Demo Day and hosting my own farewell party with the community and partners, I'm nearly ready to move on. When I joined as a community manager two years back, I had high ambitions and dreams of what I wanted to bring to the community. I was also scared to jump into the position previously held by Erika but luckily I had my trusted woolly socks that have gotten me through the challenges.

I have learned more than I could have ever imagined and I have met more amazing people than I thought ever possible. I've had the pleasure to work with a bunch of stunningly smart people: board members, coworkers, community actives, coaches and partners. Day after day I'm amazed at the community and how they always come together when we have needed them. Whether it's about carrying stuff from office A to office B (somehow I end up in a situation where moving is imminent both in personal and in professional life), cooking food in events or cleaning up after a great party.

I ended up at Boost totally by an accident - that's how all the good stories start, right? I was studying in the university and my teacher and mentor Ville brought me involuntarily to one of the events in the spring of 2013 and I never left. The positive attitude, optimism and believing in people's abilities to become the best version of themselves are key in this community. I hope I've been able to pass that attitude onwards with the newer members.

As a strong believer in hands-on learning, I'm happy I had an opportunity to organize couple of Boost Dropout Academy workshop series and Startup Journey accelerators. As a tech guy, I had so much fun organizing hackathons and programming courses bringing together Turku's finest tech talent. As a community guy I love seeing how people come together and help out each other creating new opportunities and life-long friendships.

One thing makes leaving easy for me. I'm so happy to see the current team with Anssi, Liisa and the board taking Boost to a new direction. Seeing the passion they all share for the community, I'm excited to see what kind of future will Boost see.

New adventures await me. To quote one of my heroes: GERONIMO!

Thank you. ♥Juhis

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