Thursday, July 18, 2013

Oh the Places You Could Go...

This post goes out to all of you conference first timers wondering where you can go after these 5 days…
The answer is anywhere you believe you can. If you want to go on a mission, apply. If you want to become an ELC, apply. If you want to make a difference do it. I don’t know for sure if my time as an ELC or club president helped make anyone realize something “deeper within themselves”, but I do know that I have quite literally had the times of my life in a attempt to lead myself and others to Change Forever. (And here’s my story…)
            I can remember my first conference like it was yesterday. I was going to be a sophomore in high school and thought the idea of spending a week on a college campus (Christopher Newport University) sounded like the most fun I had ever had. For this reason I thought I was quite the big shot, surrounded by my fellow Norfolk Academy students I was ready to make best friends and memories that all of the students who had attended before had bragged about. Walking into check-in I was approached by two complete strangers who were swinging their arms asking if I wanted to play “Ninja”: and so began my descent into Operation Smile obsession.
            My ELC was Scott Schneider (Team Persia Represent). He was crazy, goofy, and passionate about helping each kid on our team be a leader as well as have a great time. We did some serious bonding and I learned every icebreaker known to mankind. There are quite a few people from that team I still talk to. It amazed me to look around and see the ELCs leading the conference were just a few years older than me. Then there were the kids who were just a year older talking about the mission they had just been given at mission training workshop. Mostly, the experience opened my eyes to how many opportunities Operation Smile offered its students.
            On the evening of the final party, I watched as some tear filled older students said goodbye to my ELC. I found it so fascinating in that just a few short days he had inspired so many people. I decided at that moment I was going to follow whatever path I had to take to become an ELC. If I could inspire just one kid to make a difference, then I would have really accomplished something. If one person was ever excited to be on my team, I would have made a difference.
            Since that day, I’ve been to 2 more conferences, Mission Training Workshop, spent two weeks in Kenya, A week in China, been a WELC and most importantly spent a year on the amazing Executive Leadership Council (a long side some of the ELC who originally inspired me to become a leader). None of these experiences would have been possible without Operation Smile and their belief in me that inspired me to believe in myself.   
For those of you who I haven’t already met, my name is Bess Preddy and I am the one whose been working on this blog for the conference. I’m going to be a sophomore at James Madison University in the fall and I thought now might be a good time to introduce myself. Even though I have been involved with Operation Smile since I was in middle school, I still find it hard to believe this is going to be my 5th conference but I am so excited to be apart of it once again.
Here’s to hoping that this week is just the beginning of as amazing a journey for you with Operation Smile as my first conference was for me.
I can’t wait to meet and see all of you in just a few weeks! You might just be my next blog post…

No comments:

Post a Comment