Ann Bancroft is my hero

Yesterday I ended up pseudo-teaching a class... and since I suck at teaching (at least when I’m jumping in mid-semester), I was quite relieved to see that Ann Bancroft was coming to talk. And Ann was awesome... so comfortable talking to us about all parts of her trips, and in particular, her journals, which was the topic of the class that day. Can you imagine having one book to read on a hundred-day trip? (The one she took, on a friend’s recommendation, was Man’s Search for Meaning. She had to rip the cover off and was told to use it as toilet paper or burn it each day, but she didn’t, instead she and the five guys she was with ripped chapters out and passed them around.) On her last trip, she and Liv decided to bring poetry since you can mull over a poem longer, and her mom suggested that she ask her friends and family to submit one poem for her to talk. She talked about reading a poem and thinking about it all day long, as they pulled their 250-pound sleds over the ice. She also said how she asked her nieces and nephews to paint her skis to keep her motivated as she toils day after day... I got a bit choked up thinking about that. On one trip that was especially regimented in terms of what they could bring, the leader finally relented and allowed them to bring 100 oz. of their favorite candy. What would I possibly choose? I read her book Four to the Pole (aimed at middle school children I think) this morning... it was inspiring to read about how hard it was and how tired and depressed the team got at times, and how they had to keep going. The talk really left me waiting to take another long trip again... to see what I can accomplish and what I’m inspired to do out in the wilderness.

One thing I’ve noticed as I have met famous people (Michelle Kwan and Ann Bancroft), is that they are really aware that a lot of people don’t really care about what they do. Michelle said of the kids begging her for autographs that most will find it under the beds in a couple weeks and ask, “Who’s that?” And Ann sort of apologized for work, saying that it’s just what she likes to do and she knows it’s not a lot of people’s idea of fun.

I’m really stupid around famous people. All flustered and subservient and dumb.