Conference Mode

We just finished our annual Missions Conference at our church, and I still feel like I am in conference mode. I love this conference and other similar times throughout the year. Doesn't it make you exhausted you ask? Yes, absolutely; completely and utterly exhausted (thus you may encounter thoughts that aren't quite complete or incorrect spellings, sorry for that). But, it is all worth it. It is so wonderful to see old friends, meet new friends, learn new things, and be in the presence of God together. There also happened to be a wedding smashed in the middle of this conference, so I got to see even more friends this year (shout out to my awesome friend Ashley from Ohio). I especially loved seeing these friends.
Okay, so they're my brothers and sister, and I happen to live near 2 of them, but my oldest brother lives far away, and I always love being with them all. Plus, we hadn't taken a photo of just us together for years.

Okay, now back to the conference. On the one hand it is exhausting, but on the other it is refreshing and exhilarating. It's great to be a part of something bigger than yourself, to widen your horizons and look outside your normal little life for a while. You may have heard of the conference "high", referring to that feeling you have after a conference that makes you feel like you have a boost to keep going forward or maybe it even makes you feel like you can conquer the world. Some people think this "high" is a bad thing, but I would have to disagree. It could be a bad thing if all you do is live for those moments, but we all need those boosting moments to keep us going, to push us forward, to hopefully make us better people.

I would encourage everyone to participate in some sort of conference at least once a year. Maybe it is a church or Christian conference, maybe a work conference, or maybe a conference for something you are passionate about like adoption or writing. Whatever it is, it's always a chance to see old friends (or meet new friends that will hopefully become old friends some day), learn new things, see things through a little different perspective, and give you that extra push to continue this journey we call life.

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