We have safely made it to Salt Lake City! We had some free time this morning to sightsee in Temple Square before we left for the Girl Scout Leadership Institute kickoff. It was awesome to see so many Girl Scouts in one place!
We still haven't broken up into "majors" yet, but we've heard some great speakers already. The keynote GSLI speaker was Dr. Tererai Trent, a champion for girls' education in sub-Saharan Africa, who was mentioned in one of my sister's earlier posts. Her speech was extremely motivating, and she encouraged us all to find our "big hunger," or the thing we want most, and stop at nothing until we obtain it because "it is achievable." Her personal story of rising out of poverty made her speech an emotionally-charged illustration of what girls and women can achieve with some help and a big passion.
The speaker at the opening ceremony was Alison Levine, author of the New York Times bestselling book On the Edge. Levine climbed Mount Everest twice within 8 years, reaching the summit on her second try. She applied climbing skills to life overall; teamwork, perseverance, and decision-making is important in being a leader but can keep be an issue of life or death on a mountain. She told us not to fear failure or backtracking, because "backing up doesn't mean you're backing down."
All in all, today was an amazing start to what I think will be a great convention. I can't wait to see where the rest of the week will take us.
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