So on Thursday October 3rd, I worked half a day and then boarded a plane to DC at noon to head for the conference. Here I am listening to Michelle Obama's Book Becoming. An hour and a half later I was landing at Ronald Reagan.
I took the metro from Reagan to the city and walked from the Metro station to my hotel.
I was tired (I had worked that morning) so I though I might take a nap, but then I realized how close I was to the Whitehouse so I decided to take a walk. There were protesters out and sooooo many secret service agents around.
I then walked over to National Geographic for the Reception and Opening Ceremony. I walked in an immediately ran into other GIS people I knew. The reception was amazing, so much food, open bar, great conversation. Then we went into the Grosvenor Auditorium and heard about the National Geographic Strategy and from some amazing presenters, we even went on a VR dive to swim with the Manna Rays. This set the stage for the rest of the weekend. I can't even remember all I learned I just know it was amazing, the explorers, the research, the imagery, and people. I am now horrified by plastics, amazed by photography, want to explore the world, and map it all. I worked with some other amazing GIS teachers and our presentations went very well. I got to talk with educators in Mexico through a portal, learn about how Genetics works in creating medicines, oh and did I mention the people. Every photo of me at the event I am glowing, I was in my element, and all I could think about is how do I make this my everyday. I want to work with educators, I want to teach them how to teach about the world and use GIS, but I live in Maine and have a family here. I think this is my big take from the whole thing is I need to figure out how to make this my reality, working with amazing professionals who inspire me, allowing me to travel, keeping me in education but in a different aspect, but still live in Maine with my family.
By the time it ended on Saturday afternoon I had fallen even more in love with National Geographic and Esri, if that is at all possible. I still had some time to explore the city and I did, the entire time thinking about how I can do this type of work all the time.
THANK YOU ESRI FOR INVITING ME TO BE ONE OF YOUR VOICES AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR THE AMAZING EXPERIENCE!
No comments:
Post a Comment