One Year Later!

I am absolutely blown away that it has been an entire year since the Young Women's World Forum 2010 in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It feels like yesterday that I was waking up in my hostel in London after three days of extreme tourist-ing, getting all packed up, and maneuvering around the tube with my huge backpack. I remember so clearly getting to Heathrow and having no idea where I was (even though it was where I had got off my plane three days earlier) and seeing a small group of young women with ties and trefoils. I was so relieved and excited that it had finally come! I was finally ready to go to the Forum! The energy in the meeting room on the first day was incredible- we all just chatted and made small talk- sometimes across different language barriers and we were quite comfortable with each other because even though we were from all across the world, we had something in common, we were a part of a global organization- the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. I remember thinking that everything my leaders had said throughout the years was true! There really were Guides around the world and they all wore different uniforms and spoke different languages, but we were all connected.

I really believe that YWWF2010 changed my life. It helped to give me a sense of purpose and a platform for making a difference. I know that I have been really slow in getting things started for whatever reason, but now that I am going it has become a hobby, almost an obsession. I am constantly thinking about what I can talk about in my next blog or what I can add to my next project- if the more than one hundred people who were at the conference feel a similar way than the world will be in a much better state.

I am so grateful that I had this opportunity and I look forward to seeing what will happen next both in my personal projects and on a global scale. I also cannot wait to go to Chicago in July 2012 to experience the Girls' World Forum. I think it is really cool that I will have attended the first and the last of the Forum series to celebrate the Centenary`s of Guiding. :)