The Youth Rally 2025

Last month, I had the life-changing opportunity to fly out to San Diego, California, with The Youth Rally to capture social media content and be their official Social Media Manager for their 2025 camp. Youth Rally is a camp for teens living with bowel and/ or bladder conditions. For a little back story, my mother was a camper, a counselor, and has now been a nurse at Rally for several years. I’ve been familiar with the organization, and last year really looked into ways that I could get involved. I knew of some current concerns of theirs, looked at their existing social media efforts, researched, and sketched out some pretty big ideas that I had. A few phone calls, meetings, and a Canva presentation later, I was officially invited to attend.

While I don’t have a bowel or bladder condition, I do live with chronic illness. The last several months, my symptoms have been worse than they’ve almost ever been. I’ve been experiencing debilitating migraines, averaging two a week. At one point, I was pretty certain attending Rally wasn’t in the cards for me. Even if I managed to have PTO come July, I didn’t want to be bedridden and an inconvenience when I was supposed to be at Rally to help. But by a miracle, I went one week, and then two, and then three whole weeks without a migraine, so we booked my flight (refundable just in case) and prayed that it would work out.

I’m certainly not the only one who almost missed Rally because of their health, and I can think of years when my mom was so upset that her health prevented her from attending. I only mention it because I’m so unbelievably grateful that it worked out the way it did. I believe God's hand was in my being there all along. I’d also like to note that I did not have a migraine the entirety of Rally and ironically did not suffer a debilitating migraine post Rally until I started writing this last night. We’ll take that as a win, I guess.

I could write for hours about the logistics, prep, planning, file organization, packing lists, things I forgot to charge (please charge your mini mics every night), and as a marketing professional, that’s probably what I should be writing about, but I’m not. If you genuinely want to know the in’s and outs of how I (in my opinion, fairly) successfully was a full-time 24/7 social media manager and content creator from sunup to sundown for a week, I’m happy to share my experience and how I’d do it even better next time. However, my biggest takeaways from Rally have a lot more to do with the why and a lot less with the how.

1. Rally reminded me who I was.

I am a storyteller.

I am an only child, and all I have ever had was my imagination. If you’re playing by yourself, it gets boring really quickly without a creative storyline. If I wasn’t creating a story of my own, I was capturing one. My earliest childhood memories involve a purple Hannah Montana digital camera and a ruby red video camera. I was always taking pictures and videos. Writing poems and short stories was my outlet. I was directing movies with my dolls, and my birthday parties were just excuses for child labor where my friends were forced actors.

My love for storytelling in all mediums is why I chose to study marketing and digital media in the first place. I could tell stories without limiting my creativity or my outlets.

2. Rally reminded me how unhappy I was.

I need to be fulfilled.

I’ve felt pretty unfulfilled career-wise for a while now. A lot is going on in the world that’s deeply upsetting to me. I have very little control over most of it. I learned pretty early on that I am not someone who can clock in to a 9-5 that I don’t find particularly interesting, challenging, or fulfilling in some way and be satisfied. Some people are satisfied with crossing off a to-do list, getting paid, and going home. I wish I were wired that way sometimes, but I just am not and never have been. I haven’t felt like anything I created made a positive impact. My career and accomplishments weigh heavily on my sense of self and worth. I was unhappy with one, and so I was unhappy in general, or that’s the simple gist of it. If you were at Rally and remember my ice breaker from orientation, then maybe you understand a bit better. But what brought home how unhappy I was? Realizing how happy I had been all week long, and the mental breakdown that occurred when I thought about having to return to my regular daily life. I still remember the moment it sank in that this was the best I had felt mentally in months. Depression? Didn't know her. I had a purpose. I was fulfilled.

3. Rally reminded me what it felt like to be inspired.

Inspired by people. by a place. by an opportunity. by life.

I don’t think I knew how burnt out I was until I got to Rally. But the people and their stories, the friendships, the community, they all reminded me what it was like to be inspired. My week at Youth Rally was a reminder that, in our world that often feels so gloomy and dark and hateful that there are still good people. Only at Rally, could you attend a talent show full of teenagers that feels straight out of a movie because everyone’s clapping and singing along High School Musical style. A place where everyone is each other's biggest hype man. A place where everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, and challenges, but no one is alone. The level of support and camaraderie at Rally is incomparable. Rally reunited me with the real Jaidin, who always walked around with her camera and photographed and videotaped every magical moment of life so she didn’t forget a single second. The Jaidin who will have snap memories for years and $300 in monthly Apple fees going into her 80s to show her grandchildren her cherished memories, including her very first Youth Rally. The person who so deeply resonated with quotes like “I’m going to miss this moment and I’m still living in it.”

I went into Rally thinking that I would experience it so that I'd have a better understanding of how I can contribute to it. It was about how I would be able to help Youth Rally and their marketing efforts. I still hope that I accomplished that. I plan to continue to make positive changes and help the organization grow and improve its social media and marketing. However, Rally made much more of an immediate change in me.

The Youth Rally restored my faith that there are still good people in this world. It reaffirmed my love for storytelling and using my talents and passions for something I can be proud of. Rally was the first time in a long time that I remembered what it was like to feel inspired and have purpose. I’ve heard about the “Rally magic” my entire life, but I’m so grateful to have finally felt it for myself because Rally magic can’t be described; it can only be experienced. I’m so glad that now I get to be a part of it, document it, contribute to it, and hopefully help others discover “you’re not alone.”

If you’d like to help support The Youth Rally:

Learn more here: https://youthrally.org/give