Until We Meet Again: Final Team Meeting

Around six months ago, I met four essential strangers. After many team planning meetings, the next time I see these people will be for a month straight. 29 days of an intense journey together.

We are less than three weeks away from our departure date and had our final team meeting yesterday. It's really incredible to see our hard work finally coming together.

We met to attend a Rotary meeting and to finalize our presentation. As soon as we arrived together, we had the same normal conversations. "Are you ready? How is your Spanish coming along? Do you know everything you will pack?" The answers this time were more filled with anxiety. Most of us are experiencing some level of anxiety. Trouble sleeping, nightmares, panic attacks, and (in my case) breaking a tooth (due to clenching my jaw so tightly in my sleep). Yep. I broke a tooth.

It actually felt better to discuss these anxieties with people in my same position. It's been really difficult to pinpoint why I'm so anxious and try to describe this to my friends and family. They generally just brush it off and comment on how this is a dream experience. Yes, it is, but it doesn't make the panic and stress any less real. It's not the vacation everyone thinks it is. It is work. It's crazy schedules. It's unknown.

I think it mainly stems from being away from my job for an entire month. Which is scary to prepare for. I know I just need to let the fears go and believe that nothing will fall apart upon my departure. Easier said than done.

After all of our worries were vocalized, we were able to move on to the productive part of our meeting. We first went over our gifts to bring our host families, special people and children we encounter, Rotary members, and our vocational partners. Think anyone can tell we're from Missouri?

The cards on the right are my Thank You cards I had made from Etsy shop PaperFinch Design.

Deciding on what to bring that is representative of yourself and your state that also packs well is a difficult task! We have been discussing gifts since nearly the beginning of this journey. If you were to pack meaningful gifts representative of Missouri, what would you choose?

Christi secured some amazing gifts for us to each take. Missouri Meerschaum Company was gracious enough to donate corn cob pipes and key chains to take. Did you know Washington, Missouri is Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World? We can try to class it up all we want, but let's face it, four of us are from the Ozarks.

I had the idea to take take local honey sticks for children. Christi once again found a supplier to donate these. From our alma mater Missouri State! So thankful.

Other items we have included are picture-books all about Missouri (there goes ten pounds of weight in the suitcase). I have also included some items from OTC, Rotary flags, and a few Royals shirts. Most people are taking Cardinals items, so I have to represent the west side of the state! Along with Royals items, the Springfield Cardinals are also donating some items for me to take along.

With our gifts taken care of, we moved on to our presentation. We did a few edits and a quick run-through and we were within the timeframe we gave ourselves. Another note on the GSE experience, we don't know how long we will have to present. It could be 5 minutes or 20. And with five long-winded people, even 20 minutes is difficult. So that was an accomplishment.

After another round of discussing how to control some of our anxiety, we started discussing our return and the reports we would need to complete. It's a little surreal that it is already close enough to be discussing post-trip.

So, that's it. We have worked really hard in our preparation so now it's time to let go, practice a little more Spanish and make it to the airport on time. The next time I meet my team will on the way to El Salvador.