I’m not really one to obsess over celebrities or well-known personalities. I have actors I like and women I think are attractive, but I generally don’t follow famous people or keep up with their comings and goings. Simply put, I just don’t care that much. If you asked me who the people were at the top of my Most Want to Meet List, nearly all of them are sports heroes from my childhood. The one exception to the list is Les Stroud.
Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I love the wilderness and have always been fascinated with survivalism. The movement has gotten a bad rap with the exposure of the nutty “prepper” community, however there are people who aren’t crazy that like the idea of being able to fend for yourself. I don’t stock my house with thousands of pound of food, but I’ve always found the idea of being able to survive in the wilderness really cool. I learned as much as I could growing up and even attended a weekend wilderness survival class when I was a relatively wee lad.
When Survivorman started airing on TV, I was immediately enthralled. Here was a guy who decided to go out into nature and film himself living off the land for a week… while filming it himself. The show was real, unlike many other shows over the years, and the legitimate principles taught weren’t entertainment for entertainment’s sake. I loved the show and Les Stroud quickly became an idol of mine.
As one of the few celebrities I follow on Twitter and Facebook, I was stoked to see the Chase Jarvis show was giving away tickets to 20 lucky fans. If I’m honest, I’d never heard of Chase but I was all about seeing Les in person. It wasn’t until I e-mailed my entry that I realized the original tweet had been posted an hour beforehand. Given the tickets were going to the first 20 submissions, I gave up hope that I might actually win anything. Imagine my surprise when I got a response 15 minutes later asking if I was in Seattle or willing to travel there. I obviously answered I lived there and then waited 45 agonizing minutes waiting for a response. I suspect they were getting a lot of submissions for people who didn’t live in Seattle because the response contained details for admission to the show. I was beyond stoked.
I won’t bore you with the details of the show as you aren’t likely to find it nearly as amazing as I did. I’ll just say I was as giddy as a 12 year old girl meeting Justin Beiber and it’s an experience I won’t likely forget. Not only did I get a picture with him, I also got him to sign my harmonica. A harmonica I decided I wanted because he always played one on Survivorman. >_< Oh, oh! He said my harmonica was great and he had the same one except his is signed by Muddy Waters (whose brand of blues I particularly enjoy). How awesome is that?
As if the experience and mementos weren’t enough, I also get to cross the first 2013 item off my Life List. “Meet an idol or childhood hero” can now join the ranks of “Attend a survival skills school”; hopefully to be (eventually) joined by “Attempt a wilderness survival scenario.” What else does 2013 have in store??
Full video of the show, including many shots of how thin my hair getting, can be seen below. My favorite part starts at the 1:22:30 mark.