Thursday, May 26, 2011

Deployment Positive Thursday- Week 19

Well it feels great to be completely wrapped on our biggest event of the year! It's been a stressful week for sure, and I've lost the feeling in my smallest three toes on my left foot from so many 15 hour days walking in four inch heels, but it feels so great to be done. Mom Dolan got into town about twenty minutes after we finished this afternoon and it was such a relief to see her! Now it's really vacation time!!!

I did want to share a quick story about something that really struck me and will always stick with me about this event. Our opening keynote speaker was an artist named Erik Wahl. I highly recommend looking into his work, not only as an artist but also as an eye-opening speaker. During his presentation, he took three five minute sections of time to show a video while he painted right in front of us. It was breathtaking to see him create right in front of us. The first painting was of Michael Jordan and then he talked about "instant risk, instant reward".

He talked for a while and then showed another video of soldiers coming home and surprising their families. I had tears in my eyes instantly and thought I could just ignore the video and watch him paint, but it got a little overwhelming I had to excuse myself before I started breaking down in front of 300+ top level executives of 50 of the nation's fortune 1000 companies. After I collected myself, I returned to the ballroom and saw the single most beautiful and moving painting of the statue of liberty I could have ever imagined.

I spoke with our Chairman for this year's event (an SVP at PepsiCo) and thanked him for finding such an all-around amazing guest. That moment stuck with me all day that day and every second since.

Today, it became even more touching and heart breaking as we learned that one of the attendees had had the same reaction to the keynote address as I had, but for a different reason. His son was a marine serving in afghanistan and was killed one year ago today. Some of his coworkers talked to my bosses and the chairman about it and we made a decision to give him the painting of the statue of liberty. There wasn't a dry eye in our closing ceremony today when we told the story and the immediate standing ovation was heart wrenching.

I was trying to explain my thoughts to my coworker this afternoon- I am in a place where I can tell anyone my fiance is in afghanistan and talk about it quite a bit without getting emotional, but when something takes me by surprise like that, it can become overwhelming. This was the last place on earth I ever thought I would shed a tear but it was so touching to see the overwhelming outpouring of support and thanks for our nation's families who have given the ultimate sacrifice.



"LIBERTY" by Erik Wahl 2011


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