Joseph Romo
1. Wow. Simply put. I never thought Vancouver or any city for that matter can be so beautiful.
2. I'm not gonna give you the full report not just yet, I have to get my notes together and put together the names for that so that is gonna take me some time.
3. I just wanted to highlight and give you the overall feeling of my trip.
I arrived in Vancouver late Saturday afternoon. When I got to my Hotel I received a message on my Hotel voicemail from Fred that the HDSA representatives would be dining together and wanted me to join them. (I was eating a 2 dollar cheeseburger from Wendy's so I didn't hesitate to call a cab an off I went.) The dinner was extremely nice, and delicious! I felt like a King!
Sunday, was my first day at the convention and was impressed by the speaker B.J. He and his dad raised over 100k in his hometown in Minnesota and just making it happen there. At lunch we hooked up with the other youth from Canada and across the globe. However the youth in Canada are making it happen. Brynn is leading from the front and doing an awesome job.
Monday I took in a lot of info. (Which I will bring to u soon). We had a Gala that night and man I thought the youth could party but the older folks proved us wrong. lol. All in all we had a great time. I met young adults from Australia, Normandy, Spain as well as Canada. We all had a great time. I also learned a little bit of lingo mate.
Tuesday brought me to hear Jeff Carrol's speech. He is a brilliant scientist from Seattle working in Vancouver. Jeff was speaking nightly with his reports on the daily findings of the convention. Jeff connected with all of us in the room because he talked about where he came from (along with photos) and how his mother had HD. After serving in the military and getting married to his wife, he wanted to get tested. It came back positive. He and his wife then decided to go through with IVF along with PGD. They now have two beautiful children who are HD negative. His kids were in the front row while he spoke along with his wife. Jeff thank you for working hard everyday to find the cure, I could not fathom the amount of stress you have along your magnificent journey. You are truly a hero man.
I also wanted to say what's up to Melinda and Heather, I know you all are gonna read this and probably would want to kick my butt if I don't mention you all. Even though I'm honestly not feeling Bob Dylan or some of your other music, the trip wouldn't be as half as good if it wasn't for you all.
A quick shout out to the blonde girl from Ireland. I can not pronounce your name so I'm not gonna even try to spell it. Look I know you want us to be together so when you leave your boyfriend I will be waiting for you in the states along with the big house you want, Thanks for the hug...it was the best.
So now what? I guess from here we really have to get to work. I know a lot of our daily lives ties us from taking this on full force, but we need to try. A little of us can do a lot, but a lot of us doing a lot can make a big impact. Let's start networking from country to country. Our generation is different we're made for technology so we need to use it to our advantage. YOUTH NEEDS TO STEP UP! HD is something we shouldn't be ashamed about or not talk to anyone about. Let them know we are passionate about this. This is no longer a family secret that we need to be ashamed about, HD is something that is happening that we are going to triumph over! May god bless all of you on your journey to where ever you're going.