Sailing and AP Classes

My favorite thing about sailing is the people. Most jobs have their own stereotypes about them, but sailors are as kaleidoscopic as the ocean. I find that the only things sailors have in common are their love for adventure and willingness to work hard.

I've met some of the most interesting people I know while working on a tall ship. Being surrounded by people with diverse backgrounds and life stories got me to understand the importance of getting to know people, and once I started making it a goal to cut down on the number of strangers in my life, I started becoming a happier person.

Most sailors when sailing.

The other thing I learned over the summer was the importance of having a job. It teaches you so much more than just responsibility. Privileged people have the tendency to look at unskilled jobs as easier, more brainless, and I admit that I thought that too. And when I started out working as a hostess, I got a huge reality check...

I take AP classes, and sure, I don't get As in all of them, but I take pride in what I've accomplished as a student. But during my first weeks working as a hostess, I felt like the dumbest person in the room. There were people I worked with who had a different high school experience than I had and they were flawlessly doing their job. I admire all my coworkers. I've gained respect for people like them, and I've seen people who work from 9 to 9 in jobs like mine. My coworkers all had their own stories, and like my sailing friends, I've come to love the stories they tell me.

My challenge this year was finding a way to learn from people our high school, where everyone has essentially the same life story -- that is to say, not much. However, we are still surrounded in life by people who do have stories and a slew of life decisions that we are too young to make. Your barista at the coffee shop might have been friends with a star soccer player in her youth. Your bus driver might have overcome leukemia. That old man who lives in your neighborhood might have captured ten Nazi soldiers in World War II, or might have been captured by ten Nazi soldiers and survived.

The difficult thing about our generation is that sometimes, we view ourselves as the most interesting people in the room. The reality is that almost always, we are not.

This year, I've chosen a class schedule that gives me a lot of free time. I've decided that in that free time, I'm going to learn as much as I can from everyone around me. I challenge you to do the same.

When you meet a someone --maybe a cashier at a grocery store, maybe whoever has a locker near yours, maybe a teacher-- find out what they know most about, and in whatever time you have, try to learn. I guarantee that you'll come to the same conclusion that I've reached: we aren't better than the people we encounter, we just know different things about life.