I was "On Tour," I felt like a Celebrity!

Well, I am coming up on my last two weeks touring throughout West Virginia educating and molding the young impressionable minds of this beloved state. I have been going pretty solidly since the beginning of February and am scheduled to conclude on the 21st of my, although I might have one here and there over the summer. As I near the conclusion of my tour, I look back and feel so much. I have presented to countless schools, community events, CEOS groups, 4-H clubs, Boys & Girls after school programs, and even Girl Scout Troops. I am surprised by nothing these days, after even being the keynote speaker in Wood County at a 'Model United Nations Conference!' I have pretty much done and seen it all and learning the 'tricks of the trade' along the way...slowly building up my technology with added speakers, laser pointers and have become quite a prepared machine; I walk into a venue and can pretty much use anything available to my benefit. I have sometimes needed to improvise with 'screen materials,' I have used white walls, curtains, boards and at one CEOS luncheon I had to simply tape a few flip chart pages to the wall. The phrase,"Go with the flow" has never been so true as my experience as the 2008 WV 4-H IFYE!

Now as I come to the end of my year experience I think how wonderful it has been from start to finish. From my initial meeting of the IFYEs (USA & other countries) in Detroit, to getting to know different families and people from different parts of the world, to my first hostel stay in Berlin, my first horse burger in Vienna and now to all of the highways and byways I took through West Virginia to get to the county extension office locations. What a truly wonderful ride it has been. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been chosen to represent my state and to have been one of the few ambassadors from the United States and show by actions to how wonderful a place I come from and have lived my life. I know that I stated, on my return from abroad, that all of this felt like a dream and now, a year later and after being back for a few months it still feels like I have just awakened from a long sleep and that it didn't happen. Life at home is pretty much how it was before I left, my little brother and sister are a year older, my mother is piled up to her ears with activities and things for work as usual, but one thing has definitely changed...I was an IFYE (International Four-H Youth Exchange). It has enriched and helped mold me into a pinnacle 4-H member, not only community and stately minded, but I have increased that to the global level that can be awarded to this unique and ultimate honor, the IFYE.

Even though I look at the conclusion of my tour in the next few weeks, I am not only exited for the next stage in my life, I also have some sadness and longing to be rewinded back to the beginning of my trip abroad. However, I find much satisfaction to know that even if my 'tour' is over, my experiences and opportunities as the IFYE will never be concluded. With the contacts, families and friends that I have made over the past year, I will be able to continue communications and provide the families I stayed with with their own American Host,if/whenever they wish to come and visit me. I also plan for many future trips throughout my life, back to where I had been during my year as the IFYE. So, I guess you could say that my IFYE Experience has just begun! ;) "To boldly go where no 'IFYE' has gone before!!!!"