When I wrote Beyond your ZIP code a week or so ago, I thought my passion for international youth exchange had been rekindled. Boy, was I wrong.

Last Saturday I took part in the International Youth Exchange Expo that started this discussion. I represented one of four local companies in an effort to show kids and their parents the connection between exchange and career paths. I was supposed to tell people about all the international opportunities a company like mine has to offer, right here in this sleepy little community.

Well, once I started talking, I couldn’t stop. But instead of covering the employment community’s need for people with international experience, I talked about how exchange changes a person’s worldview in general. It makes people better problem solvers, because they have tackled something that once seemed impossible, in a language that wasn’t their own. It makes people better listeners and more respectful of others’ opinions, because they’ve had to look at the simplest of issues from a different cultural perspective. They’ve had to make sense out of what doesn’t seem to make sense. They’ve had to see things through different eyes. They’ve learned to appreciate the differences and learn from them, even adopting some for themselves.

I went on and on and on.

I saw lots of smiles and nods as I spoke, but I think the parents appreciated what I had to say more than the kids did. That’s okay, because if it helps convince them to send their babies off into the wild, wild world to see what it’s like, then I did a good thing.

No, my passion for youth exchange wasn’t rekindled when I wrote the ZIP code post. That was just the spark that got me going again. After Saturday, NOW the flame is really raging.

Let me know if you want to talk about it. I’ve got a lot to say.