My name is Connor Quick. I am currently finishing out my high school career in Menasha, Wisconsin. I’m 17 years old but will be turning 18 in June just one month before training camp. I’m currently working on getting accepted to a college for when I return. I have the rarest of personalities, that is the INFJ. I’m super excited to begin this new page in my life and to experience all of which God has in store for me.
I heard about the World Race at a perfect time in my life. It was the answer to the big looming question of what was I going to do after high school. Was I going to college? If college then, which college? In-state or out of state? Tech or University? Study abroad or take it easy my freshman year? So many questions and all of which I had very few answers to at the time. The World Race came to me in a sequence of perfectly timed events. The only reason I found out about the World Race is because my mother’s boss went on vacation to Peru and just happened to meet up with a future World Racer. She then told my mom about it because she thought I might be a good fit for it. My mom told me and it was seemingly perfect. The next day during my study hall I took the World Race “Have What It Takes Quiz?” It inspired me to explore the site even more. Find some vlogs and blogs of current Racers and the stories the alumni told.
It had everything I loved. Little did I know God had been preparing to show me this trip for a long time. I first met God in Indianapolis. It was at the National Catholic Youth Conference during an hour of adoration. The experience was life changing, twenty thousand Catholics all worshiping the eucharistic at the same time, in the same place. This was the first time I felt a close relationship with God. I felt his presence, but when I left I had the feeling that all pilgrims and mission trippers get… the feeling to do more.
The next opportunity I had to experience God was for a mission trip to Mississippi. Unfortunately, I had already been saving to go to Spain with my school and the trips overlapped so that summer I spent 12 days in Spain. I got to dive into the culture. The first day that we were there we were told to find our own lunch. That was an experience. The small group I was with probably sat down at four different restaurants before we actually ordered something. I loved absolutely everything about Spain (except maybe the smog in Madrid). The Cities were breathtaking, the culture was rich and diverse, and the people we met were all so kind. Spain was when I truly found my wanderlust, what I didn’t know is that it only gets worse the longer you take to feed it.
The following summer is when God really threw things into high gear. This one summer did more to direct me to the World Race than any other thing in my life. It started off with a mission trip to Texas. On this mission trip, I got to discover that the work I did on that trip was something that I loved to do. I got to meet some people that were absolutely incredible and I formed some relationships that could last a lifetime. After the mission trip, some of my school friends and me went on a backpacking trip that we had been planning since that spring. We went to Pictured Rock National Park in Munising, Michigan. The sights were great, but the company was better. I had a great time with my friends and look forward to doing it again this summer. There, on the shores of Lake Superior, I found the value of being away from it all, roughing it and the joy that comes from being with friends.
I know God has been preparing me for this trip long before I even heard about it and that only makes me more excited to experience what He has in store for me.
Some extra facts about me:
I live with my family of five. My parents me and my two younger brothers.
I’m a three-sport athlete. (2x wrestling team captain, 2x sectional qualifier in wrestling, 2x second team all-conference for football and was part of the team that won state in 2014 for Division 2 football)
I love movies, my ENO, camping, lifting and running.
I have been out of the country to Canada and Spain
And I’m incredibly excited to begin this new journey.
