Seven months ago when I applied to work as an intern for ÉCU -The European Independent Film Festival (aka Fun European Project as it said in the Craiglist job ad!) I had no idea what I was getting myself into. During these months I have met some of the most interesting people ever, worked hard, played hard, but most important enjoyed my time while working for the "Fun European Project".

My position at the festival has been marketing coordinator, which has been fun and I didn't mind spending most of my days on Facebook and Twitter :), managing social media buzz, getting filmmakers interested in submitting their work and getting people to attend the festival.

When Scott, President of the festival came to me and offered me the job to be the new Festival Manager, I had my fears. First, I wasn't scared that I couldn't handle the job - I was afraid of giving my old job to someone else. It's tough to let go of something that you are good at, but it's also fun to jump into something new and very exciting. And I am definitely someone who loves challenges and pushing myself faster, higher and further. My second thought was, what if from now on they don't call me Miss Estonia and I just become just The Boss. :)

Is it scary? Yes, of course. Is it going to be heaps of hard work? Definitely. Am I going to feel that nothing works the way I want it to? Most probably. But is it going to be tremendously fun? No doubt about that!

Becoming the Festival Manager after Rhiannon, who did it for four years, and Teodora who did it for ÉCU 2011 is definitely hard and I will need to prove myself to many people. But as long as I have my team with me and as long I know that people trust me, and trust what I am doing I am going to be just fine. I am very excited and happy to accept this position - and I cannot wait to put all my ideas into an action.

So what have I learned from working for the festival so far? I have learnt that if you stay around for long enough, prove yourself to right people then good things are going to happen and you would get onto a ride that you can't imagine, a ride that is hard to get off. So here I am, standing in front of the carrousel. Am I going to jump on it and have fun. Am I going to work insanely hard to make 2012 fantastic for all concerned? Definitely!!!

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