Happy 2011 Holiday Greetings to Loved Ones Around the World!
What a year it has been: many highlights, many travels, a few challenges and heaps of gratitude. It’s hard to believe – and a tad embarrassing – that we didn’t manage interim updates here since last year’s holiday missive, but perhaps that’s indicative of how occupied we’ve been with living life in the present. Now it’s time to make up for that and provide a past-present-future update. So, here we go!
2011 in a nutshell: A year of goodness, happiness and restlessness. A year in which we remained engaged-but-still-not-married. A year in which April took at least one international trip per month for eight out of ten consecutive months and somehow managed to remember the time zone when she got home. A year of REXiness for Jerry, building on the REXpedition platform he described in last year’s letter, and including REXperiments and more (keep reading). A year in which we gave thanks every day for our blessings (we love this TED talk about gratitude), and remembered that our worries are pretty “lucky worries.â€Â A year of good health, more time with our families-of-choice, adventures, blending new and old friendships, and deep anticipation of what is to come.
Rewinding to January, we took a quick getaway to Laguna Beach, where Jerry played faculty to a group of public affairs pros (for him, kinda like being in the lion’s den, something he loves) while April enjoyed Laguna’s “winter.”  Big news came at the end of the month, when April learned she had been selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum – yes, the folks in Davos. This honor framed the rest of the year in the most incredible and memorable of ways (which you’ll see peppered throughout this update; hear more of her views on global leadership in this video done for WEF).
In short, April gets to be a YGL formally for five years, during which time there are a variety of summits, forums, task forces (on everything from water to urban mobility, dignity, youth financial education and happiness) and other initiatives to join.  She’s part of the WEF community which comes with all kinds of perks – not least, the people! It was hard for her to keep this information confidential for six weeks like WEF required; her poker face is pretty bad. Meanwhile Jerry wonders if there is an Old Global Wizards club that he might join… (hey!) Continue reading “Happy Holidays 2011!”