Before I got into our presentation at Glanford Middle School on our final day in Victoria I first want to thank all the people and organizations that made our cocktail party the evening after our the eagle feather ceremony a great success. Dockside Green for providing an incredible venue overlooking Victoria, the International Women’s Co-op for their lovely vegetable pakoras and other delicious nosh, the Driftwood Brewery for many fine liters of boutique brewing suds, and of course the continued support of Whitehall Rowing. Without support like this the weekend would not have been possible.
Rick was understandably terrified to speak to hundreds of middles school kids the next morning. His job taking airplanes to their limits does not bring him in front of scores of pre teens and he would be expected to hold their attention for at least 15 minutes. It had been several years since I had spoken to a group this age and was myself not necessarily possessed epitome of confidence. Adam, on the other hand, has combined his natural gregariousness with two years of practice to put such a polish on his spoken word that I believe that he has begun to transcended that imperceptible but most important level between a skill and a craft.
Eager young voices filled the auditorium that only moments before had been a gym on which an enthusiastic game of handball had just finished. It reminded me fondly of childhood assemblies and their power, no matter what the subject, to make the day that seem that much shorter. Adam produced the iconic red Right to Play ball, held it up for them all to see and tossed it into the sea of hands.
“Butts on the ground!” he said nipping the most eager competitors in the bud and a five-minute game of catch ensued between us three ocean rowers and an entire middle school. Once suitably riled up we passed them off to Mrs. Elaine Wooster, the assistant principle whom, with practiced authority, calmed the mob and introduced us.
Rowing the ocean, being the large and conveniently flexible metaphor that it is, allowed us all to speak on something different and relate it back to our row. Adam spoke of Right to Play, I on the ocean row itself and the challenges of a struggling writer – thankfully one with a contract. However, it is Rick who deserves special mention. Any man brave enough to stand in front of middle school children and proudly declare himself a nerd of the highest order and proceed to show screen shots from Star Trek (Kirk and Picard) is a man daring enough to cross the ocean with.
Rick was profoundly moved as a young boy when his mother took him to meet Captain Wally Schirra, an actual space man. This, combined with many hours of Star Trek (all of them) motivated Rick to work with single-minded at the subjects that did not necessarily come easily to him so that he could get his degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, aka rocket science. Rick does not get to work on spaceships but instead on very advanced airplanes, which he considers the next best thing. Had he been born in the, dare I say some time in the next generation, its likely that he could very well be working on making spaceships safe for everyone to fly instead of airplanes.
After the assembly a small but eager and beaming group of kids came up to Rick to thank him for speaking. One was a young man wearing a red shirt with the words “Its not Rocket Science (Oh wait, yes it is!)” printed below the characteristic NASA lettering. Another young girl came up to him and said.
“People say they should make fun of me cause I like Star Trek.”
“Don’t listen to them, it’ll get better,” was his swift reply.
It was not hard to imagine these kids as a version of Rick really not so long ago. I think passion often find its source at the intersection of fascination and love at a formative age. These kids were fascinated and shared the same love of space and flight that Rick does. Rick’s job is to test planes to make them safe so we can all work, visit our family and go on vacations with out dwelling on the extraordinary fact that we are flying. Perhaps it will be Rick who now might provide the motivation that influences what these kids will be doing it in the future, in space.