When I was a young boy, I read about the great solo circumnavigators: Joshua Slocum, Francis Chichester, Bernard Moitessier. Their adventures, courage, skill, and pursuit of their dreams mesmerized me. I wondered whether I could ever be smart enough, strong enough, or brave enough, to try something like that.
I also discovered a love for teaching, and for showing students the opportunities that exist for them in this world. Not until my middle age did my two passions combine, and we connected our first ocean adventure into classrooms to teach science, geography, and math in the real world. Voila! sitesALIVE!
Some may find their dream early, and some may find it late, but you only find it if you keep pursuing it, and keep preparing for when you do get there. As they say for the Vendee Globe, you can’t win if you don’t finish, so you must keep on working toward the things that you love.
My mother was the original adventurer in our family. She grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and after college, went to Fairbanks to host a radio show called Tundra Topics at KFAR, the first radio station in the Alaskan Territory. What must it have been like to be a single woman on the Alaskan Frontier in 1940?! She always modestly said: “I had great opportunities.” I admire my mother for saying “Yes” to those opportunities, as many would have said “No”. She knew the outcome was uncertain, but she took the risk instead of staying in her comfort zone.
This sitesALIVE program attains a dream of mine that we’ve worked toward for 25 years: a truly global school program connected to a truly global event. The boat is ready, I am ready, sitesALIVE! is ready. Now we embark on a great adventure with an uncertain outcome at sea. Yet it is surely worth the risk. Welcome Aboard!