To wish, or to try

You know what's caught my heart this week?

(no, not that Feathers. btw, I'll bet you 10 e-cabbages and a round of Mario Kart that you've ruined my life.) :)

Anyways, it's this girl here, Abby Sunderland. You've probably seen her in the news this week. And boy does she have one story to tell...

In a nutshell, she is a 16 year old who was going for the record of being the youngest person to circumnavigate the world alone and nonstop, leaving from California in January and planning to return sometime in the next few weeks. But some rough storms in the Southern Ocean this week ended up damaging her boat, Wild Eyes, knocking the mast off, leaving her without a sail and without much of a way to pilot the boat.

I've been seeing some news reports the past couple months of this girl trying to sail around the world, and I followed it with some mild interest. I mean, it's interesting, but not unique. I was pretty much following the same media coverage when her brother was doing the same thing last year. This other 16 year old girl from Australia, Jessica Watson, recently finished her lap around the world last month. There was another news article about Laura Dekker, a 14 year old Dutch girl who is dealing with government issues and regulations trying to keep her from sailing the world.

But of course, like anything else, the thing that catches people's attention is trouble. So of course when the press gets hold of the fact that she launched two emergency radio beacons, they have to blow it out of proportion because thats how the media gets the readership. (I say that with cynicism from simply working at a high school newspaper.) Well, it caught my attention. Wild theories about what might have happened and critizism of letting young people have adventures. Gosh that made me angry.

Luckily, everything turned out alright, she was safe and has been rescued.

But the one thing that makes me think is the kind of drive and determination it takes for these people to try to accomplish such a feat. While we sit at home doing homework, playing video games, or browsing on the computer, someone else is out there completely living life. I'm jealous. Sometimes I wish I can have an adventure like this. Something that proves you can live life. Something special, something that "builds character."

I started thinking. What would it be like to be on a 40-ft boat by yourself for weeks and months? What does it take to fight bad weather to keep yourself moving towards the finish line? What kind of character do you build after such a journey? What is your attitude when your journey doesn't end quite like you hoped? What do you learn after an experience of life like this?

I started imagining. Smooth sailing, light breeze pushing your sailboat along. Fierce winds for days on end, knocking your sailboat left and right. Knowing the ocean, learning the winds, reading the waves. Accepting success with joy, recognizing failure with acceptance.

Reports say that her mast was knocked over with stormy waves some 25 feet high and winds at some 50 knots, which, combined with a bit of bad luck, spelled a death sentence for her voyage and for her boat.

I felt really quite sad when I heard that they had to leave Wild Eyes behind in the middle of the ocean which, for now, is condemned to remaining adrift at sea, until it will eventually sink. That's another thing that I sort of feel, having to leave a part of you behind when an era ends. There is a website out trying to raise money to try and retrieve Wild Eyes from the middle of the ocean; they've raised over $2000 in the three days the website was up. However, when I went to take a look today, they replaced the Paypal symbol with a note, saying "We have exhausted all efforts to locate and retrieve Wild Eyes...Donors will be contacted about a refund." Having to leave a part of you half way between Africa and Australia...well, sometimes that's how the story goes. I was almost ready to cry...

But despite the failure, it's people like this and stories like this that bring inspiration to countless people. Strength, ambition, determination, bravery, independence, any other words like that in a thesaurus. The people complaining about the wisdom of letting somebody so young do something like this? As a young person myself, I find that to be insulting and take offense at that. I feel that I'm levelheaded enough. There's more dangerous people out there driving cars. It's when you're young that you get the chance to be physically able to do something like this, and mentally, this would build so much mental character as well.

And so a few waves got in the way and the story didn't end as expected. Isn't that true of so many other things in life? In the end, I would rather have failed saying "I tried" rather than staring into the sky saying "I wish..."

Life is a learning process, whether you are young or you are old. You cannot live life without learning a little something new every day. And there's no better way of learning than being in the middle of it all.

While we were sitting here, that girl has lived a lifetime and a half. The skill, the guts, the pride it takes to take a challenge like that. Sure, there is excitement and there is danger, but staying completely safe is just existing, not living.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable." - Helen Keller