Accomplishments

I was daydreaming at work today and realized that in the past year, 3 teens have really set themselves apart and have accomplished spectacular milestones quite early in their lives. In one of those cases, the advancement of technology has really opened up the possibilities of how one can make a name for themselves in today's age of social media.

The Quest To Circumnavigate The World
Abby Sunderland, age 16, took on the monumental task of sailing around the world by herself in her 40ft. boat Wild Eyes. Abby had been preparing for her journey since she was 13. She had trained in ocean sailing with experienced sailors and also with her father. The route consisted of about ten legs beginning from Marina del Rey. From there, she would sail through Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and back to Marina del Rey all solo and unassisted, following definitions set by the International Sailing Federation World Sailing Speed Record Council according to which the equator must be crossed. Being a mariner myself, I have sailed through various parts of the Pacific Ocean which in itself is a monumental task. Thus I can appreciate her efforts to sail such a long distance by herself, especially at so young of an age. There are so many things to consider and so many things that can go wrong while you're out there in the middle of the ocean that it is quite a scary undertaking even for the most experienced of mariners. In fact, she had to make two attempts and during the second attempt, her sailboat was dismasted due to heavy seas and high winds. She found herself stranded in a remote area of the Indian Ocean. Abby activated her distress beacons and was fortunately rescued two days later.

Photo of Abby - Courtesy of Lisa Gizara

Paparazzi
For those of you who have school age children, there is a chance that they will participate in their local school talent show this year. They may sing, dance, play an instrument or show off some wacky talent. In the case of Greyson Chance, he decided to do a cover of Lady Gaga's song "Paparazzi" while playing the piano. Someone recorded this and posted it on YouTube. It just so happens that Greyson, who is 12 years old by the way, has a great signing voice along with amazing piano skills. Within a short amount of time, his video gets more than a million views because his performance was ridiculous. The following week, Ellen deGeneres invites him on her show where he plays the cover song that made him an internet phenomenon. His YouTube video now has more than 26 million views and he has a record deal in the books! This is one of those examples of how technology has changed the way people get discovered. Prior to the year 2000, one of the few ways to get noticed was to have a producer sitting in the audience during one of your performances. What are the chances that a big name record producer would sit in on a sixth grade music festival? With the arrival of social media technologies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, all it takes is one person putting something spectacular out there and the next thing you know, it spreads like wildfire through everyone's social network. From that point on, there is a 100% chance that your media will be seen by the right people, which will set you up for the rest of your performance career. In the case of Greyson, he has the talent to be a great performer and I'm glad he is putting it to good use.

Photo of Greyson Chance - Courtesy of the Ellen deGeneres Show

I remember the painstaking task of trying to put our Kidswithsticks videos up for public viewing back in the late 90's and early 2000's. We had to purchase our own personal webspace and at $20/month, it was quite expensive (remember we were still in high school). Once we had our videos up, it took about 10 viewers to exceed the website's monthly bandwidth allocation. Soon, the $20/month fee was too much and we couldn't continue to fund the webspace. A few months later, the website was taken down due to lack of funds. If YouTube was around during that time, we would have no issues trying to get our fan base out to more than 10 people per month. The kids growing up these days take for granted that they have the ability to upload videos for free and have unlimited bandwidth to show their videos to millions of people around the world. It is so much easier to get discovered in today's technological world. Imagine if YouTube was around back in 1999-2000 time frame. Can you imagine if someone taped the Swing Kings during one of their awesome performances and posted it on YouTube? I am willing to bet that they would have had a record deal within the first week of being posted online. If you don't know who the Swing Kings are, ask someone from El Monte that grew up during that era. This group had some spectacular talent but were only famous locally due to the infancy of internet broadcast technology.

Pike's Peak Hill Climb
For those of you who have not heard of Pike's Peak Hill Climb, it is the nation's second oldest motorsports race at 88 years behind the Indianapolis 500. Pike's Peak is in the state of Colorado and the climb occurs on a 12.42-mile course with 156 turns and climbs 4,720 feet where the drivers finish at an elevation of 14,110 feet. As the air becomes thinner, fatigue sets in for the car and its driver. The road surface changes from paved to dirt and the average grade is 7 percent, with a "maximum plus grade" of 10.5 percent. Drivers usually race up the hill with a navigator since most of the corners are blind corners. All it takes is one small mistake and your car will go barreling down the side of the mountain due to the lack of barriers. The hill climb sounds crazy but to 16 year old Savannah Rickli, it's just another day driving her rally-prepped Mini Cooper. Savannah has been racing since she was 11 and on Sunday, she will be the youngest driver ever to have competed in the hill climb. Everyone likes to think that they are a good driver but when given these types of speeds and conditions, it takes a special type of person with amazing reflexes and bravery to accomplish a task such as Pike's Peak. I have been autoracing myself and know that it is no easy feat when you push a car to its limits in the middle of an unstable environment where a patch of bad asphalt can mean inevitable disaster. I applaud Savannah for her natural talent and skills to take on such an achievement such as Pike's Peak. For me, it is a distant dream but for her, she is writing the history books.

Photo of Savannah - Courtesy of Leah Millis At The Denver Post

What will your kids be doing 10 years from now when they are in their teens? Who knows, maybe the next kid will discover cold fusion. It wouldn't surprise me. The standards are definitely set high and anything is possible with the help of technology, desire, determination, talent, acquired skills, and motivation (especially when you have no fear of failure).

As my daydreaming continued, I began to reflect what I had done during my years as a teen. I never had any natural talent to do amazing feats such as those mentioned above. However in retrospect, I was extremely satisfied with my teenage years mostly because a lot of the great things I achieved was accomplished with a great group of people. Yes you know who you are. I realized that the big theme at that stage of my life was teamwork. I was surrounded by a great group of people and together as a collective whole was where we had the talent, motivation and skills that were needed to achieve some ridiculously fun times. Now I'm almost in my thirties, but I realize that life can be short. Therefore I live my life like there is no tomorrow. I think that if I keep going down this route, I will be okay in the end. Compared to all the ridiculously cool accomplishments these 3 kids are doing in their teens, it seems that my unique life stories was just shifted up a few decades into my early thirties. I may not make an appearance on ESPN or the Ellen deGeneres show but in the end, I still have a ton of cool stories that I'll be able to tell my kids someday which is okay by my standards! =)

Navigating around the Pacific Ocean on a Nuclear Powered Vessel