TakingITGlobal

35 "I wasn't sure what to expect coming here, wasn't sure what the scale would be - whether there would be 100 youth or 10 youth - but it was a really good experience and I'm glad that I was able to come to meet all of you. It was an awesome opportunity to be with other people in a room who are like myself who are in similar situations; it's nice to know that I'm not alone. It definitely helps me and supports me emotionally. Before coming here I didn't have interaction with Inuit or Metis people before so this was my first exposure to meeting people from those Indigenous communities and it has definitely giving me more understanding and respect for those groups. I'm taking a lot more away from here than what I came in with." ‒ Warren Hardisty "When it was mentioned that I could bring my daughter I was like 'wow, that's amazing'... Being in a circle like this with everybody I find is so beautiful because we are all on the same page and really want the same things. So when I go back to my community what I will take is that I feel hope for the future. We are not here to work against each other or to bash each other, we are here because we are one people. I'm also taking away hope that my daughter will be in my shoes one day, maybe not doing exactly what I'm doing, but in some way helping others because that is so important. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing, to pave the way for future generations." ‒ Brittany Whitford "I feel really connected to everyone in the room, whether I spoke to you a lot or a little, there was a bigger connection that I feel with everybody and I'm really happy. People who know me know that I've had a really trying year and I've just put myself in work non stop, burning myself out without even realizing it. It was my way of dealing with what I was going through. But here, when we talked about certain things and talked about certain issues in community it is so inspiring and encouraging and feels so good to not feel like you have to be perfect and to know that in our specific communities and across our identities that we are basically all looking for the same things… What I am taking back is that when I'm working in my community and feeling not too hopeful about something, I'll remember the conversations we had here. I can envision us in the future seeing each other again, maybe not all at the same time, but in the different things we are going to do. I see so much leadership in all of us and this helped give me more confidence - I feel very confident." ‒ Mikka Komaksiutiksak

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