Whimsical September

A Family + Lifestyle Blog

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My journey as a presenter for Rachel’s Challenge officially began last Sunday. As I drove to the Nashville airport that morning, I sort of had a “freak out” moment as I realized that I was about to fly to the other side of the country for five days to begin training for an organization that I really knew next to nothing about with people I’d never met. Though I’d been working on memorizing scripts for a couple weeks and had facebook messaged back and forth with a couple other presenters, I still was feeling horribly anxious.

When my plane landed back in Nashville this past Thursday night and I hugged my new good friend Daryn goodbye, I had to smile because I knew that I had just experience five of the most incredible and fulfilling days of my life.


It’s official: I’m in LOVE with my new job.


Highlights from training:
*Being assigned the rental car driver for my group, and with every wrong turn I made we laughed a little loud and grew a little tighter. We had ourselves a good time jammin’ out and learning a little bit more about what everybody’s lives are like back home.

From L to R: Torski from VA who founded her own business, Kendall from VA who is a very successful public speaker and personal trainer, me, Jenny from Dallas who is a kick-butt Nanny, and Matt from LA who does voice-overs… awesome!
*My two morning runs in the BEAUTIFUL and refreshing Colorado air. I would have run all four mornings, but my brief encounter with a mountain lion/coyote (?) cut my outdoor runs in HALF. Definitely one of the scariest 30 seconds of my life, but I’m alive to tell about it, so I’m good to go. 🙂
*Spending Tuesday night running around downtown Denver with my bff, Amy.
*Darting IN THE RAIN AND LIGHTNING back to the lightrail after the Rockies game
*our picnic and intense game of beach volleyball

*Without a doubt, the best part of last week was sitting in the office all day learning about each and every presentation and discovering the impact that this message is truly going to have this year.


Spending five days in Littleton, Colorado amongst 50 of my most well-rounded, motivated, compassionate, and accomplished individuals that I’ve ever met was absolutely nothing short of humbling. I felt like I was in this little bubble of goodness that I never wanted to leave. The energy of the group was so contagious, and I am so fired up and excited to be apart of a team who is so dedicated to changing the lives of today’s youth. I can’t wait to get on the road for a few months and travel the country presenting one of the single most powerful messages I’ve ever heard.


FACT: Though I am SO anxious to get these presentations going, I am FAR from ready to present! The presentations are very technology heavy, and I have a lot of work to do to make sure that my presentations are flawless, as this message deserves for them to be. There are a total of nine presentations that Rachel’s Challenge offers, which include elementary, lighter middle school, heavier middle school, high school, community, etc. What is so AWESOME and UNIQUE about this organization is that they are not willing to just present the message and LEAVE, but they want to stay and implement the message into a school-wide club that will keep the message alive in the school.


To my MANY educator friends: Please let’s get this program in your school this fall! This program is going to reach more students this school year than ANY other program in the country, and your school needs to hear it, too! Trust me. 🙂 If you’d like to give me your school’s name and principal’s name, I’d be happy to pass it along to the business office.


I am sure this blog is going to turn into my travel diary come the end of August.  I have a hunch that I’m about to embark on the most challenging, rewarding, exhilarating, exhausting adventure of my short 23 years of life!

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