World Leadership Congress 2001 - Group G-2
I remember way back when I volunteered at my first HOBY seminar, my junior year of high school. I was one year removed from my HOBY experience as a participant -- an ambassador, as we call them -- and I remember being deeply impacted by the weekend. I don't know what I had expected going into that seminar as a first-time staff member, but in the end I think I was genuinely surprised at just how much I had learned and taken away from those three days. It was just as much, if not more, than I had one year before as an ambassador.
I was inspired by that feeling and overwhelmed by how much I felt I'd grown, and as a result ended up writing a column in that next week's edition of The Bartlett Express -- my hometown newspaper where I was working as a reporter at the time -- about volunteerism. Because finally, after that weekend, I understood it. I knew that if someone would feed me meals and find me a place to sleep, I would volunteer for HOBY for the rest of my life. This was how I wanted to serve others, by ensuring that every HOBY ambassador I ever met had the same incredible experience that I'd been so fortunate to have as a 16-year-old sophomore.
Now, as I get older and form friendships with a lot of the volunteer staff I find that my reasons for keeping on keeping on every year through countless state seminars and WLCs have changed just a tad. Seeing those faces I only get to see once a year is a big part of why I can't stay away. But as I left WLC this year I was definitely struck with that feeling again, the one that makes me question if I actually got more out of the week than my ambassadors did because I feel like I've grown so much.
Of course in this day, I can answer that question pretty easily by sitting down on Facebook and reading their statuses and the titles of their photo albums - "The Best Week of My Life!" pretty much summed it up for me, too.
And of course, my guys. These are the ambassadors of group D-2, who have left an indelible mark on me.
HOBY Hugs,
elizabeth
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