MOVE Conference

I need to get better with my blogging. I now need to play catch up since a whole month has passed a very busy one at that and I haven’t blogged about any of it. I’m going to start at the beginning of March and probably to a couple posts on the month so that each post isn’t to horribly long. So here is the beginning.

The second week of March I had the opportunity to go to a two day conference that To Write Love On Her Arms was putting on called MOVE. It was in Coca beach. I got a room for two nights and was so excited to go. I ended up getting hooked up with this girl named Rachel who wanted to share a hotel room. She lives in Orlando so I suggested we meet and carpool down saving money. She was cool and we had fun chatting on the way down. We went Thursday night and got there around 8pm. We ended up just hanging in the hotel room. Friday morning we got up and went to the conference room. I was nervous about meeting all the new people and the TWLOHA interns and staff. I walked up to the registration table and was warmly greeted by Kaitlyn and one of the interns. I was welcomed by everyone and felt at ease instantly. The first day our speaker was Aaron Moore; a licensed counselor who has a practice with his wife in Orlando. He presented info on depression, anxiety, and addiction. As far as information presentation goes I felt a bit like I was back in psych class. But it was different. From the very beginning everyone made it clear that this weekend was about dialogue. The speaker as well as the interns and TWLOHA staff wanted to hear from us. They wanted to know our stories. What we had seen work and not work. I thought it was a wonderful way of talking about the topics and getting info out there. As the day was winding down we were informed that there was a surprise. Well in walked Damion Suomi and Lauris Vidal. I was so excited and tried to keep my fan girl squeals to a minimum J the guys each played 2 songs and we were dismissed when they were done.

So that day’s sessions ended around 5. Rachel and I went back to our room and just hung out and ordered pizza. Damion and the Minor Prophets and Lauris were going to be playing a show at a local bar that night to raise money for a trip to SXSW in TX. So Rachel and I went. Other than us there was only one other person from the conference there so the three of us hung out with the TWLOHA interns the whole night. Rachel ended up wanting to leave around 11:30 so I quickly took her back to the hotel and went back to the bar after that. I had an absolute blast that night. I got to know the interns listened to some amazing music and just laughed. I was talking with one of the girls Brandi and I mentioned how much I would love to be an intern. How my dream job would be to work for TWLOHA. But I felt like I had to be an adult and couldn’t do a 4 month unpaid internship. She really encouraged me. She said if it was something that I was passionate about then I should just go for it. It can’t hurt to apply. So that is exactly what I am doing. I am in the process of applying for the fall internship. If I were to get it then I would be staying in FL until December. Anyways I had a lot of fun and I got to know some pretty amazing people. I didn’t get back to the hotel until around 1:30am and didn’t go to bed until 3am.

The next day the speaker was Michelle Moore. She presented eating disorders and self-injury. Then we did a basic QPR training. QPR stands for Question, Pursue, and Refer. It gave info on recognizing the signs of someone who is suicidal, the questions to ask, and how to get them help. It was really helpful and I hope to someday be fully qualified in suicide prevention response, so I can work a hotline or even take part in TWLOHA IMALIVE program. So Saturday’s sessions ended around 3. I bought some t-shirts said goodbye and Rachel and I left for Orlando. I was sad to leave my new friends, but I left invigorated and excited about a possible future and a reignited passion to help.