Monday, July 20, 2009
American Academy of Achievement
In 1996, when I was in the final month of Grade 12, I was selected as one of 6 Canadian Honour Delegates to the Banquet of the Golden Plate for the American Academy of Achievement, a three-day conference and summit of the "great minds of our time" at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho. I was overwhelmed at the prospect of the honorees - Larry King, Bruce Willis, Elie Wiesel, Amy Tan, to name just a few, and had no idea what to expect. I boarded a plane in Moncton, New Brunswick, and touched down in Toronto for a connecting flight to Colorado. I was terrified, I got lost in the Toronto airport, I was travelling alone. Somehow, I made it to Idaho, chatting with an American businessman on the flight from Colorado to Idaho, and remember he thought I was quite "foreign", being from Canada, and was surprised that I would offer him a stick of gum for the take off.
We landed in Boise, Idaho, and boarded an old greyhound bus, driving through the tumbleweed landscape and sawtooth mountains of the region, to find ourselves four hours later in a ski and golf resort in Sun Valley.
I met with another Canadian delegate, also from New Brunswick, as we made our way through the pomp and circumstance of the weekend - we were asked to bring black tie dress and gowns for the closing ceremonies, and "business casual" clothing for the weekend. I was 17, I lived in the country surrounded by beef and dairy farms, my father was a heavy truck mechanic, I had no idea what "business casual" meant.
The first evening we had an open air BBQ with a wonderful show by the local Shoshonee Indian Nation, coming in on horseback in traditional dress and performing drumming and songs for us. The honour delegates were interspersed with honorees, and we were asked to not ask for autographs or take paparazzi style pictures, only to be respectful. At my table that night was a Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist, who actually awed me with his intelligence, and Martha Stewart, dressed impeccably in riding gear. I remember she was very kind, very down to earth, and quite funny.
That evening, we were treated to the most spectacular fireworks display, and with the sun going down in a mountain area, it got quite cold. We sat huddled under blankets, still unable to understand the magnitude of this event, only to find I was sitting next to and talking to author Amy Tan. She later gave a talk about losing her virginity, which I thought was quite forward given the "convervative" rules we were all expected to follow for the weekend, but I have since admired her candour and have enjoyed many of her novels!
The weekend was a blur of symposiums, where honorees would speak for 45 minutes at a time, with a question period at the end. There were delegates from every state, and a few very accomplished high school students with incredibly intelligent questions, I felt very much the country bumpkin but was still amazed to be counted among such company!
The final evening, the black tie event, had all of us dolled up to prom finery (I actually did wear my prom dress, the fanciest dress I had), with the boys in rented tuxedos and corsages for all the girls. I sat at a table in a converted arena hung heavily in Dale Chihuly glass sculptures, with a variety of students from across the United States, including Drue Kataoka, from the San Fransico Bay area. Drue was quite well-known through the weekend for being incredibly well spoken, intelligent, and far beyond her years. She would be the first in line to ask questions of the honorees after each symposium, and you could tell from her demeanor, she would be famous someday. She simply had a flair that most awkward, gawky teenagers are lacking. Sure enough, she has made a name for herself as a portrait painter, in the traditional Japanese sumi-e style.
My ticket was paid for by the late Ted Rogers, of Rogers Cable, he himself a member of the Academy. I literally had no idea who he was then. I really had no sense of the accomplishments of many of the honorees, save those who were celebrities. Bruce Willis, Amy Grant and Tom Selleck being the only ones that I knew by name.
This experience laid a foundation for me - I understood from the other student delegates that you are never too young to make a difference, to leave a mark, and no matter what your talent, or interest and no matter where you come from - be it cosmopolitan San Fransico to the rural landscape of Westmorland County, New Brunswick, we all have equal potential if only we tap into it.
Retrospectively, of course I wish that I had had the life wisdom I now have to ask intelligent questions, to really understand the lessons they had learned on their respective paths. I wish I had been able to gather the courage to see past the celebrity. Despite all of this, I still count it among the most profound experiences of my life, and I am still astounded that out of all of the students in every high school in Canada, I was selected.
I wonder if the other students have been as profoundly impacted as I was? In some ways, 1996 seems eons away, and in others, it seems like just yesterday, but I still hear some of the closing remarks from some of the speakers, most notably those of Larry King, who told a story of hard work and determination - a kid from the "bad" side of town -who rose to become a landmark figure.
The moral of the story is that no matter where you come from, what your background, there is always the potential to realize your dreams. It will not be easy, and it may be more than a little hard at times, but these are the experiences that define us, and it's up to us as individuals, do follow the path we most believe in. It took me quite a while to understand that - well, since 1996.
And in case you're wondering, that is me, far right, with my 17-year-old baby face and a horrendously bad hair cut :)
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