Living

I've decided to change my subject. I wonder how many times we'll do that? Anyways, I've decided that I am seriously interested in creating a video project that revolves around how people choose to live. So, here goes:

1) Ever since I was little, I've had a fascination with people that choose to live in extreme ways. It is still a major life goal of mine to debut in a Jackass movie. For reals. I devoured videos of extreme sorts icons, like Shane McConkey and the neighbor up the road who toured Vietnam on a motorcycle and established new climbing routes in Patagonia. I wanted to travel and learn how to live life unconventionally. My greatest fear was (and is) living a life without really living at all. While my skiing and mountain biking skills are all but exceptional, I wanted to embody the people I watched in those videos who my dad called "crazy." I started wrecking motorcycles and accepting dares that lead to more skinny dipping endeavors and uncomfortable social situations than I would care to remember. I ever broke any bones other than the ones in my toes, but I walked away with enough scars for my mom to call me "accident-prone."

I want to explore the minds of people that live this way. Through interviews and research, I think it would be fascinating to explore this topic. What drives people to BASE jump off of buildings, antennas and cliffs? What motivates people to drop out of college and become rambling adventurers? What made Jack Kerouac take to the road and Christopher McCandless disappear in the Alaskan wilderness? Why do we love adrenaline?

I think the first form of research will be interviewing people. I want to video conversations with people who live in an extreme way, as well as people who work 9-5 job. I want to ask: "What is your greatest fear?""If you had 30 days to live - what would you do?" "Are you happy?" I want to be surprised by people's answers. I want to understand what drives us to live the way we do. And I want to better understand my own desire to live a life full of living.

Through videos, documentaries, iconic books and other mediums in which the sense of "adventure" is explore, I mean to better understand this idea. I know my idea is a big one as of now, but I know that with research, my project will become more focused. For now... I'm going to go watch a movie about climbing in Chile...

2)

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qfTTesptRk

My idol, Shane McConkey, died in 2009 during a 2000 ft cliff jump in Italy, when a parachute malfunctioned. Shane lived extremely. He was a professional skier and BASE jumper, who worked for Red Bull, Sessions, K2 and many other extreme sports brands. He appeared in countless Matchstick Productions videos and commercials, spurring my young self to decide to do stupid things like jump off the roof and onto the trampoline with my skis (Mom still doesn't know about that one)... I think that looking at how Shane chose to live his life, despite the struggles and risks that came with it says a lot about the importance of truly living. As his wife, Sherry, mentioned in the movie, "McConkey," Shane's biggest fear wasn't dying. It was having to work a 9-5 job.

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U87cReyC7a4

Sarah Burke was a professional skier, who died in 2012 in an accident on the mountain. She pioneered the way for women to be a part of the skiing culture that exists, including fighting for the women's halfpipe to be a part of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Her face plastered mine and my little sister's walls, where we looked to Sarah for inspiration on how to ski. For years, my little sister told people, "When I grow up, I wanna be a ski bum." We lived in Eastern Montana, 3 hours from Red Lodge and almost 5 from Bozeman, where skiing was accessible. We started skiing at a young age, but only went a few times a year - meaning we never became exceptional skiers. My favorite part of this video is when Sarah says about the mountains, "It's where we met, where we play, we live and hopefully where we'll die." What about that lifestyle on the mountains draws us in a way that makes it worth dying for?

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq32prjmwLw

Rory Bushfield, Sarah's husband, talks about the death of his wife. I think it's profound that the spouses of these people who died living in such an extreme way are so sure to accept that "they were doing what they loved." Sherry McConkey, Shane's widow, has said many times that she would never have asked him to stop, even though they had a young daughter. There is something in living a life this way that makes it worth dying for.