How one act of admiration turned into a call for action. A month ago I spent some time scouring the internet for guidance on conducting extreme environments research. I have a few ideas for continuing research after I graduate and decided to poke around to see what I could find. In my searches I came across the story of Barbara Hillary. I had not heard about her before, so I found her website and was immediately taken aback. Barbara was the first African American woman to reach both the North and South Poles. These accomplishments came in her late 70’s long after she had survived both lung and breast cancer. This barely scratches the surface of her greatness. She is true inspiration.
I spent some time watching different speeches Barbara gave and found myself feeling a renewed sense of motivation and drive. I am generally a pretty inspired person, however listening to her speeches ignited a new fire inside that I didn’t know was there. I decided that my emotions were too strong to not share them in some fashion. I sent Barbara an email to express how she had inspired me and that I hoped one day we could speak about her adventures. I sent the email with total gratitude and with no expectation of a response.
To my surprise, I received a message on my phone from Barbara trying to reach me. I called her back immediately. We spoke about her experiences and some of my the ideas for polar or high altitude research expeditions. We also spoke about adventure education and how critical it was to include that type of learning in city schools. I felt like I had a million questions for her, but knew I wasn\’t ready to ask them. She said that whenever I was ready to talk more about planning future expeditions I could call her at any time. I have no doubt that we will speak again soon and look forward to her insight into polar expedition planning.
If you wait for people to do things in this world, you won’t do a damn thing.
~ Barbara Hillary
