Since my travels to Kenya, my life has gone back to normal (somewhat) with daily speeches and lots of We Day prep. On September 27, we hosted We Day Toronto in the Air Canada Centre. The arena was filled with 18,000 youth all cheering and chanting to save the world. I was excited to be a crowd pumper for Toronto We Day and had a blast teaching the We Day dance to a group of volunteers with friend, Kevin. Toronto's We Day hosted speakers such as Danny Glover, Mary Robinson, and Patch Adams, as well as performers such as City and Colour, Joe Jonas, and Shawn Desman. My highlight for Toronto We Day happened on accident... I ran into the bowl just as Nelly Furtado was beginning to speak and stopped because I remembered hearing she had a special announcement to make. I stood on the stairs as Nelly announced that she is donating $1 million to Free The Children to build another all girls secondary school in Kenya! It instantly brought tears to my eyes, then more tears as Susan - a student at Kisaruni (our all girl's secondary school in Kenya) - came out to surprise Nelly... it was the most beautiful moment I have witnessed in my five We Days. My other highlight from Toronto's We Day would have to be the special visitors we had... Like always, a group of AMAZING BSU students traveled to Toronto volunteer with us at We Day as crowd pumpers! I was expecting to see so many of my friends... but what I wasn't expecting was to see Kim MacInnis, another one of my BSU professors! She came with her daughter to surprise me, and it was the best surprise ever. I had a blast at the We Day after party hanging out with Kim and Jonathan all night, feeling like I never left BSU.
Just two weeks later, we were off to Vancouver for our second We Day of the season! Vancouver was similar to Toronto in the sense that there were 18,000 screaming youth... however, they were shamelessly louder and more excited! For Vancouver's We Day, I was on the Booths team, selling Me to We merchandise instead of Crowd Pumping... it was a big difference for me considering the four We Days I attended before Vancouver, I was always Crowd Pumping or at least in the bowl... so it was different. However, my volunteers were amazing and Jonathan came by my booth quite a few times to chat and catch up. My We Day moment for Vancouver also happened on accident... I popped my head into the bowl to see what part of the show we were on, when I saw Mia Farrow on stage. I decided to stay and listen because everyone says she's an amazing speaker... Suddenly she brings out the ripple effect analogy and follows it with, "let's stand against hunger! let's stand against injustice!", etc... and 18,000 youth stand with her in solidarity. It was amazing. We Day Vancouver consisted of speakers such as Mia Farrow, President Mikhail Gorbachev, and Shaq (well, kind of...), and had performers like Hedley (rocked it as always), Shawn Desman, and Down With Webster.
The weekend after We Day a lot of us stayed in Vancouver. When I say "I fell in love with the West Coast"... it's the understatement of the century. My friend, Kevin, who is from Vancouver, constantly would tell me I'd love it... and I'd always argue "I'm an East Coast girl", but man oh man, was it beautiful. I drove up to Whistler with Kevin, Derrick, Britt, Amber, and Dee for the night. We rode the highway that is known as the "Sea to Sky highway" because of it's views. We stopped every chance we could to take scenic pictures, friendly pictures, and absolutely ridiculous pictures. We spent the night in Whistler Village and just relaxed together. The following day we came back to Vancouver and split up to do our separate things. Kevin, Dee, and I went to the Granville Island brewery. After that we went to Kev's old university - UBC - and saw the views from there. We had to bring Kev's car back to his parents house before meeting everyone for dinner. His backyard view was of mountains... no big deal right? Finally we meet everyone for dinner and go out to a super nice club for the night before heading back to Toronto the following day. Everything about Vancouver was incredible - it was such a beautiful place... I can't wait to go back someday.
So... that has been life up to now. Currently, Nathaniel is visiting for the weekend, celebrating our one year anniversary :) I am back in the daily grind of speeches until We Day Waterloo next month then home for two weeks at Christmas time!
To see more of what my life has been like, check out our We Day website!
Cheers!
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