Do you know what the best part of my job is? The reaction and enthusiasm from mere strangers! After having a…umm…let’s just say ‘reflective period', I have decided that as corny as it sounds, I am making people happy and that is a good enough reason to stick with it. I know, sounds lame, but I kid you not, it is a good feeling and makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside when I hear the excitement. Whether it's excitment in a person's voice when I talk to them about their Community Celebration, or when they e-mail me to ask me a simple question; I can tell just how much they are looking forward to this one day. The torch may only be in their town for 20 minutes or a couple of hours but that's all seems relative because the Olympics are coming to them and celebrating in their community. I love the reaction suppliers give me as soon as they find-out what they are helping us achieve, there is an extra ‘bounce’ in their voice and they get excited to help with such a large nationwide event. I am not oblivious; I am very conscious that many people are anti-Olympics and that even more are anti-Olympic Torch Relay, but I think the positive outweighs the negative. I have read a lot of post-relay quotes and realized that people don’t easily forget this kind of thing and that the experience stays with them and I like that, it's encouraging to me. So the next time that I'm having a ‘reflective’ period, I am just going to think of that one person that is smiling because the Torch is coming to their town and I think it will help me smile too.
