Friends #13 & #14

This past Sunday, I attended an inspiring talk at ASU about the Power of Passion.  It’s an interesting topic and as I listened to each speaker, I realized living life is my passion.  You never know what it’s going to bring!  In the past, I have felt sorry for the generations that come behind me.  So many people talk about how the millennials and generation z are failing.  I’ve read articles about how technology has not prepared these generations for hard work…or life, in general.  It’s as if these generations lack passion.  And then, when I least expect it, my job takes me a direction that allows me to meet people in their twenties who have learned to harness their passion and succeed.

Unfortunately, both of these people I’ve had the privilege to get to know live in the public eye, so to keep them anonymous I am going to call them ‘Ann’ and ‘Andy’.

‘Ann’ is a twenty-eight-year-old real estate agent.  She was on her way to get her master’s degree when she took a summer job working for a real estate company and just fell in love with it.  Suddenly her focus changed and she couldn’t see herself doing anything outside of real estate.  One of ‘Ann’s’ other passions is hiking.  Late last year, ‘Ann’ heard about a special interest group that was looking to use money marked for sustaining the preserve she loved to build a tourist attraction right in the middle of protected land.  Not only would the attraction be an eye soar for nature lovers but it would also, in essence, bankrupt the fund that has been keeping the land preserved.  ‘Ann’ was outraged!  So she decided to do something.  She began working with a group lobbying to keep the attraction from coming to fruition and that’s when ‘Ann’ began to notice, she was, by far, the youngest person in the room. 

She began to notice that people her own age weren’t paying attention.  They would wave her off when she asked them to sign a petition.  They never wanted to listen when she tried to instill the importance of her fight.  It bothered her so much that ‘Ann’ decided she wanted to do something about it…so she decided to make herself an example.  She decided to run for political office.  More important than getting elected is her desire to save the preserve she loves and to encourage other people her age to live their most passionate lives by changing the world around them.

I’d like to call ‘Ann’ a revolutionary but just before I met her, I was fortunate enough to have a drink with another millennial setting the world on fire.

‘Andy’ readily admits he always wanted to be on a platform.  But how do you get that job?  After graduating from college, he worked a bunch of low-paying odd jobs, none of which was even close to the spotlight.  In fact, he was working in a call center when someone asked him if he’d heard about the contest a local radio station was running to compete for the chance to become an on-air personality.  ‘Andy’ had no idea what they were talking about, but he went home and looked it up. 

To qualify, a contestant first had to submit a video.  So ‘Andy’ uploaded his video to the station two days before the deadline and got a call to come in and audition.  He just knew this was his big break, but when he got to the studio, he realized he was among a large group of contestants.  The afternoon DJ, was checking in each contestant as they arrived.  Star struck, ‘Andy’ said, “Oooh…I love your hair!” which was pink. 

The woman scowled as if ‘Andy’ had just insulted her.  “What do you mean by that?”

“Oooh…uh…just that I like your hair,” he said wilting under the woman’s glare.  She checked him in and ‘Andy’ went to the back of the room.  He put his back to the wall and slid down to the floor, certain he had just blown his shot.  When they called him up to try out, he auditioned and then he went home.              

Three weeks after the audition, the station’s programming director called ‘Andy’ asking him if he wanted to sit in on the morning show for a week trial.  There was just one problem:  ‘Andy’ had a full time job and no vacation time.

He thought about calling in sick but he knew someone would hear him on the radio and rat him out.  So he came clean, told his employer what was going on and they agreed to let him temporarily work the night shift.  Morning radio begins EARLY so ‘Andy’ needed to be in the studio by 5 AM.  He would work his shift at the radio station, be at his call center job by 2 PM, leave work at 10 PM only to go home and try to get a little sleep. 

By midweek, the station decided they wanted him on the air permanently…but there was a catch.  They could only hire him as part time.  For a while, ‘Andy’ kept up the impossible schedule of having two jobs until he just couldn’t function any longer.  After three months, he put in his resignation at the call center and lived on a part-time wage.  As ‘Andy’s’ star began to rise, he was actually living in poverty.  He couldn’t afford to go anywhere so he spent most of his free time alone and depressed.  He used up his entire savings during his first year in radio and just when he felt like it was about to break him, the station decided to hire him full time. 

Today, you can hear ‘Andy’ on the radio every morning. He has become a highly popular figure and has been an inspiration to a number of young people.  And as he grows his following, the sky really is the limit but it couldn’t have happened without hard work and a passion to succeed. 

Neither ‘Ann’ nor ‘Andy’ really wanted me to tell their stories.  This wasn’t my typical ‘friend’ setup.  But each of these individuals was so inspiring to me, that I simply could not just idly let these stories sit.  I think it is important for millennials and generation z to realize the world is changing, leaders are emerging and because of them, the world will one day be a better place than the way my generation left it.