A Message from Amy

Well, I'll give Jessica a break from blogging since she so far has been the leader in setting up the site (thanks Jessica!!).

I'll start by saying that this is such an exciting experience for all of us - the GSE team (of course!) but also our friends, families, co-workers and sponsoring clubs. I can't believe how much support I've received from those around me and how interested people are in learning about this journey we're about to take together.

I also visited a Rotary meeting this week at the Mile High Club (my sponsor). This was my third visit to the club, and people are starting to recognize and remember me, which is great. But probably the biggest surprise was that the guest speaker was none other than my former boss, who is now CEO at the Denver Botanic Gardens. He, naturally, gave a presentation on the gardens, plans for remodeling, community relations, and the workplace culture....while obviously a completely different topic than the economic development talks that I'm accustomed to hearing from him, the message was incredibly relevant. And that's what he talked about - Relevance.

And by relevance, he talked about how in our own lives - whether we work in economic development, or gardening, or we're out traveling the world - we should always think about how these experiences are relevant to our day-to-day lives, and how our actions are relevant to those around us. He talked about a number of things, but this is what I took away: our actions have an impact on those around us and on ourselves, and this is something we have control over. When we travel to Central America on the GSE exchange, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to make that impact be a positive one.

So, I'll leave it with that. Que este viaje sea llena de experiencias positivas, tanto para las comunidades de America Central a que vamos a visitar, como para cada uno de nosotros!
~Amy