Hi everyone, I’m Jack Klion, I’m 16 years old and live in Edgemont. I became a Youth Ambassador in 2013, but it seems as if it was only yesterday. The trip to the training conference is only one of the many amazing experiences the Youth Ambassador program has given to me. Walking in to the conference I didn’t know what to expect, everything ws intimidating especially because I was one of the youngest ones there. Within the first 10 minutes I met Dylan who I can best describe to you as me. We both play hockey, like the same music, watch the same TV shows, like the same movies, but most of all both had Tourette. We, and everyone else at the conference had either never met another person with Tourette or haven’t met more than one person with Tourette. To be surrounded by over 100 was astonishing. By the end of the trip nobody wanted to leave. It was the greatest 4 days of my life. I saw a one man play last week called “The elephant in every room I enter”. Pretty fitting name for a show about TS, and actually spoke on a panel for a Q and A type thing afterword. Gardiner, the famous actor with Tourette, also went to the conference and I think he described the feeling of parting the best. He said, “I just wish I could put everyone here on a spaceship and live in outerspace with just them and nobody else and never have to worry about anything ever again.” So of course when I heard NASA was sending people to mars I immediately thought to put my name down, along with the other 100 people. But apparently you can only sign yourself up for that, and I also forgot about the minor issue of leaving everyone and everything around me, never to be seen again. So that idea was a no go, but it really does sum up how much everyone bonded at that conference and how amazing it was. I wouldn’t have ever guessed that presenting to students and faculty members would give me that exact feeling. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love speaking in front of people. Big crowds, small crowds, in class, to my friends it doesn’t matter I love it. This gives me an outlet. I can be my super cool self and teach everyone about the wonders of Tourette Syndrome in my own way. To educate people about something so close to me, as I’m sure it’s the same for everyone in this room, is just amazing. A year ago I presented to kids at Springhurst Elementary and yesterday as I was getting ready to study for my ACT’s (which was not actually the case I was furthering my newfound hobby of magic but my parents don’t need to know that) I came across a giant yellow envelope. I mean one of those envelopes people get in the movies when some shady guy in sunglasses sits down at a park bench next to the protagonist and doesn’t say a word but just drops it in his lap, and walks away. Of course next thing you know the Opera House in the background blew up and the envelope has something in it concerning national security or something crazy the character shouldn’t have found out but I digress. And unfortunately no once I opened this envelope there wasn’t really intense theme music in the background or an explosion that triggered my CIA training I had undergone in event of a national crisis… but there were 10 heartwarming letters from Springhurst elementary’s 5^th graders thanking me for presenting and that they learned so much about Tourette and how I am, and this is in fact a direct quote “A great inspiration to the world” which I am honored someone believes, and how much they enjoyed it. To me that made my day, in fact my week and I had just aced my Math test. To me, the most important thing is being able to tell people about this annoying, interesting, amazing part of me that makes me and many of the people in this room so special. I knew at the conference in DC that we weren’t the unlucky 150 people in Washington. We were the luckiest. The Youth Ambassador program has allowed me to express that to kids across the country…if you take out an r in that word. But with the help of my fellow trainees at the conference we very well may advocate across the country. That’s my goal. To teach as many people as I possibly can about these wonderful sounds and movements that make me cooler than you. Through the Youth Ambassador program I’m able to do that, and that’s why it means so much to me. Thank you to Keith and Marc Tucci for helping kids like me be able to achieve our dreams.