From time to time I read a story or an article in the paper that really gets me thinking. Earlier today, (I had the morning off) I read a story in the New York Times about the skier Ryan St. Onge who's hoping to compete in the Vancouver Olympics.
"Ryan has traveled to every continent except Antarctica, filling his passport three times over. He has competed in the Olympics, obtained his pilot’s license and nearly completed his bachelor’s degree in finance. His next adventure: qualifying for the Olympics in Vancouver.
His family does not plan. It hatches an idea, earns the necessary money and launches boats into oceans or bodies onto ski ramps.
His family is not rich. His brother works in real estate, his mother in accounting. His father, who has been a concert producer and a busker, strumming his guitar on downtown street corners for spare change, sometimes says simply, “I’m in boats.” One month, they had $43 to spend on food, so they survived on boiled and grilled hot dogs.
Three generations share the same philosophy. Ryan’s grandfather took his children skiing or sailing every weekend, lived for 15 years on a boat in the Bahamas and imparted the family code.
“Life isn’t about multiplication tables,” Cary St. Onge, Ryan’s father, said. “School is important, but it’s a tool. It’s not life. I tried to raise him to see what life was.”
In typical St. Onge fashion, Cary and his former wife, Sara, removed Ryan and his older brother, Chad, from school, leased their home and set sail for the Caribbean on a 42-foot boat named Elvin. Ryan was 8 years old; Chad was 10.
Every day was different. The boys learned to scuba dive and spear fish. They visited third world nations and finished their homework at sea. They took turns standing watch, alternating with their parents, day and night.
By the end of the voyage, each family member could have sailed the boat across an ocean. In fact, the boys completed several passages on their own, their parents watching as they hauled anchor, charted course, sailed the boat and anchored it.
The trip exposed them to different cultures, other ways of thinking. It made them stronger, more independent. Ryan St. Onge returned to school with long blond hair turned almost white and the darkest tan his classmates had seen.
“It completely changed who we were,” he said. “I can’t put my finger on exactly what happened, but it’s a huge part of who I am. I don’t ever want to live a normal life.”
You can read the entire article here :http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/sports/olympics/13freestyle.html
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