I have spent the past 20 years of my life in school. I have learned a little bit about anything: everything between heaven and earth. “Knowledge is Bliss” as you know.

I completed my engineering studies a few months ago, marking the end of my formal education. However, it does not mean that I stopped developing. First of all, I’m still attending school of life, which I’ll never escape. Secondly, I learn new things every day here at GKN. Imagine the privilege of learning at work by working on fun and challenging projects. That possibility is one of the reasons I’m doing this trainee program. (As you know, the biggest reason is that I can kickstart my blog career through the program.)

This week I have been thinking very much about my personal development. This is partly due to the fact that over the past two weeks we have had Training Days here at the company. This means that we have attended a variety of courses and lectures. You can read more about that in Philippo’s blog posts a few days ago.

The second and more important reason why I was thinking about my development this week is that my dear fellow, Andreas Åhwall, left us yesterday. He has moved on to Fokker and will be gone for six months. It made me reflect on the wise advice Andreas has conveyed. He helped and supported me during my first time at GKN, and trained me to become a better runner (Andreas is professional runner. You can read more about Andreas here).

It’s always hard to say goodbye to a good friend.

Andreas, we miss you. Good luck in Holland!