Who I'd Like to Meet

A good friend asked me tonight, “If you could meet one person on your trip out of anyone in the United States, who would you choose?”

I still don’t have an answer. Not sure if I ever will! How could I choose just one? But I think I can start making a list of all the people I’d really like to meet. I’m hoping that I can use this trip as an opportunity to meet some of my childhood heroes or people who’ve inspired me. Of course most of my childhood heroes or idols fall into the category of professional hockey players. As my teenage years came around I thought of meeting skateboard and snowboard professionals. Now that I have five years of college behind me I’m a little more educated, and that’s given me more ideas of people to meet. Where to begin…

Wayne Gretzky
During kindergarten the school announcements mentioned that hockey sign-up was coming up. My friend Tom, who had older brothers that played, said I should play. I knew nothing about hockey. Heck, I was in kindergarten, I didn’t know much of anything. But I went home and I told my parents that I wanted to play hockey. When I learned of Wayne Gretzky I had my first childhood idol. To this day my personalized Wayne Gretzky autograph is one of my most prized possessions. It’d be great to lace up a pair of skates along side The Great One.

Shaun White
I blew my chance to meet the kid. When I was snowboarding in Park City, Utah in 2002 he was standing right in front of me in the lift line. I didn’t want to be one of those obnoxious fans. However, I got to watch him ride and the inspiration lives on. I was a fan of the kid when I first heard of him when he was 13 or so. And just a hunch, we’d probably get along just fine.

Studs Terkel
It was only a year ago or so that I first learned about Studs. I was impressed instantly from what I read. I did some research, found some interviews, and plenty of inspiration followed. His way of speaking, how you can just put a microphone in front of him and he just talks and talks. I’m not sure what I’d say to studs. Probably not much and just listen.

So there are a few people I’d love to meet, three people from three different parts of my life. -xo