One of my heroes, Henry Rollins, once said (paraphrasing), “Travel helps kick the ignorance out of your body.” I first heard that at 19, just a few months before I was able to wander Europe for the first time on my own meager dime. That was a transformative experience for me and one that I still reflect on every time that I travel. One thing that I have learned is that travel is weird. It helps you to see the weird little worlds that exist everywhere and interact with people, social customs, and ideas that you may have never interacted with in your geographic backyard.

My first time at UCET was in 2018. I had just gone to SXSWEDU week with my district team and had a great time meeting people and really starting to understand the bigger picture of K-12 education. Coming from the higher education world I knew that conferences and working with others were a huge part of understanding the professional landscape and being able to establish yourself as a professional. Building those connections led to other conferences and ideologies.