I got no time to write because I am quickly sorting myself at home and getting ready for a knarly week ahead that has me flying to Alaska, back home, then  ferrying to Vancouver Island and doing 4 presentations there in 2 days!

Sleep…  I miss you so MUCH!!!

Check the vid here

Thanks HUGE to everyone from MA and VT!

\m/\m/

Kevin

Ok before I post an email that just brought tears to my eyes (and not sad tears) I just want to update briefly…

I have been knarly BUSY!  Last week I did 6 presentations around home at Mission Secondary, Foundation Alternate, Fraser Heights Secondary, Heritage Park Secondary, Hatzic Secondary and Keith Lynn Alternate school (listed in no partciular order…  Just the order my tired brain could remember all the names).  All of these presentations were RAD.  The before I was hardly done the last of these six presentations I was flying up to Terrace, BC Wednesday evening to speak at the college there for an ICBC Trade Off presentation Thursday morning.  Then as soon as I finished speaking I got to the airport and flew from Vancouver to Seattle to Vegas where I met 3 bros at 11pm Thursday night. RIDE (ZEKE RULES).  I was in Vegas 12hours and slept NONE.  So at 11am Friday morning I boarded a plane for Cleveland, Ohio where I arrived Friday around 1opm and cabbed to a hotel to wait for my friends.  They had beat me to Cleveland apparently, so I ordered  a quick bite to my room, took a much needed shower and cabbed into Cleveland’s nightlife area to meet up with my buddies.  We had  a pretty good night the first night in Cleveland but it had nothing on the next night when we saw MANOWAR perform!  SICKEST SHOW EVER!!!  W|e all agreed.  Many brothers of METAL at this show!  Sunday was all about rest.  Monday was all about travel… Cleveland, Baltimore (4hr flight delay), then finally Boston.  I tried to get myself well Tuesday (yesterday) as I could feel myself getting sick.  There was not much rest time though as I had a busy day of TCB: I did laundry at a laundry-mat, sought out a skateshop in Woburn, MA called Boardwalk where I had a seized bearing on my chair replaced…  Mark the owner’s first ever wheelchair repair.  THANKS DUDE!  I am rolling smoothly now!   I ripped out of Boardwalk and headed to a grocery / drugstore where I bought essentials for the road trip ahead of me.  I was just back at my room in Woburn, MA in time to meet up with my partner in saving lives Cara Filler for us to commute to Wilmington High School where she was MCing and I was speaking at a pre-prom parents night.  This talk went so rad and despite my feeling ill and barely havng a voice.  At the end of my talk nearly 1000 parents and students from Wilmington, Massachusetts stood to their feet and gave me the sickest round of applause!  I was so STOKED and still am.  I went out for sushi with Cara and two of the coolest principals I’ve ever met afterwards and was back in my roomlast night  packing and organizing for a week and a half long tour of Vermont!  I got into bed around 12:30am last night and was up until 2am responding to two emails that touched my heart…  Today I drove 4.5 hours through Massachusetts, through a snow storm in New Hampshire and all the way to the top of Vermont (nearly in Quebec) to speak at a school called Enosburg Falls Middle and High School.  I got another heartfelt standing ovation here - keeping my New England standing ovation streak going strong at 100% ever since my first talk in Vermont at VTLSC in November of last year.  I then drove back to Burlington, Vermont where I am now.  I unloaded my gear into my room and started making arrangments for my mom and Hayley when they meet me in Boston on Froday then ate  a big fat steak at a restaurant beside my hotel and sat at my table afterwards responding to emails until my Blackberry battery died.  I am now in my room and just updated 4 Facebook pages, Twitter and now my blog and WHOA!!!  I am feeling pretty tired.  There just isn’t enough time in the days.  Have they figured out how to clone humans yet??  That is what I am getting at.  But on the flipside of my little joke a seriously amazing email I got today that touched my heart… and this was only one of about 30 I have read.  I just got the ok from this mom to print.  Some other notables are from cutters and suicide attempts that have seen a new light in their lives and a lot of people from Wilmington, MA and Edonsburg Falls who were moved by my presentations.  Anyone who wrote me and thanks me.  YOU ARE SO VERY WELCOME.  Thanks for your kind words - all of you!.  When I am tired and my eyes are buring and my throat is dry and voice is raspy and my back is sore and my legs are spasming and my feet are swollen and I am beyond the definition of exhausted and the journey has barely just begun these following words are just one example of what inspires me to dig deep and get up tomorrow and do it all over again (pretty much non-stop until June)…

So apparently the Chili Peppers aren’t cool with people using their tunes in personal YouTube vids…  Well sorry for the promotion…  Let;s hope the Mammas and Pappas are nore chill.  If you’re not following, I tried posting the V-Log below with the song Dani California but the volume got muted out…

ORIGINAL BLOG:

… I did not want to leave the sunny warm skies of California!

I had such an amazing time there last week and over the weekend.  Day 1 at Pacifica was EPIC and Day 2 at Adolpho Camarillo High was more of the same!

So here is the latest V-Log …  A true ode to the awesome state of California and the great people I met on my first every Cali speaking tour but hopefully not my last!!

ENjoy!!

Kevin

PS.  Well I have been home now for a couple of days and they have been busy days…  but great days. 

Yesterday I spoke at Hatzic Secondary School in Mission in the morning and Foundation Alternate School inVancouver in the afternoon.  Both presentations had me leaving stoked, and I have a lot of messages to respond to tomorrow on my flight tomorrow - hopefully meaning I made a serious impact on some young people’s lives.  Thanks to everyone from Hatzic and Foundation yesteray!!

Today (Tuesday, March 8th) I spoke at Fraser Hights Secondary School.  I speak at Fraser Heights to the grade twelve class every year.  I think this year was my fourth consecutive year.  I have gotten quite close with the principal at FHSS and am always introduced to my former English teacher from grade 8 and 11 Ms. Murray.  She taught me when I was a HELLION and is the first to say it.  But now we are all cool.  I LOVE speaking at Fraser Heights because of these connections but also because the students are always awesome!  Today was another beauty!  The streak continues!!

This afternoon I spoke at Mission Secondary School.  As I pulled into the school grounds I realized this was the location of my first ever high school (My Story)  talk nearly 9 years ago.  This afternoon I repeatedly referred to the full circle feeling I couldn’t help but feel being as I kept thinking back to where it all began.  I struggled with sound a bit today but as the talk progressed I really felt the students embracing my story and I could feel myself getting more and more into it as well.  By the time the final video came on I took a little time out and a few deep breathes.  I was a little emotional as I attempted to grasp all that has happened in the 9 years since my first ever talk. 

How I feel about this journey…

It has been an incredible journey that I never forsaw from the beginning.  As the journey progressed I realize now that I became more and more faithful in knowing that I had found my path.  I have been thinking  a lot today about how many personal goals I have been able to reach since my first talk and especially in the last couple of years: sponsored by Volcom, website, speaking in the USA, speaking at the National SADD Conference in the USA, speaking in warm places (Arizona 3 times, Florida 2 times and now California!) to name some of the recent goals.

Anyone reading this I have these words to say… 

If you follow that dream; if you follow your passion and if you never give up and give all that you have…  Anything is possible.  I never imagined any of this stuff that is all happening in my life years ago.  All I knew is I wanted to speak in some schools.  That simple idea has turned into my greatest passion and the most fulfilling and rewarding part of my life…  In so many ways this is MY LIFE!  Anything is possible and you never know where an idea or opportunity might lead.  Life is full of surprises and if you put the positive energy out there and just believe you will find a way…  YOU WILL FIND YOUR WAY.

I read a quote somewhere a while ago and it really struck me…

It said something along the lines of…  ”Imagine what you would be capable of if you knew that you could not possibly fail”

This quote inspired the heck out of me.  And as I write these words I can’t help but feel as though I have been living this quote.  I have never believed I would fail.  Friends…  We become what we believe. 

Well… Bed time for me.  I will be getting under 6hrs sleep tonight and have a HUGE day and three weeks ahead beginning tomorrow.  The road blogs will begin again soon…

Thanks for reading!

Night

Kevin

WOW!

So I had my first ever presentation in California today.  Years ago when this whole travelling gig started up I would say to people “imagine if one day I could book a Cali tour!”  Well I guess the positive vibes I was putting out there worked because today that dream came true…  And today was so unbelievably awesome I almost had to pinch myself a few times just to be sure I was awake.

When I arrived in Cali last night it was dark and rainy.  I was also feeling somewhat haggard from the night before I had out with my dad for my b’day.  Cabs both ways…  No worries.  But yeah…  The Cali I arrived in yesterday just didn’t feel so much like the one I remembered.  Well this morning that all came to a change.

I could feel the fresh ocean air fill my lungs as soon as I left my hotel heading for my rental car.  The sun was fighting hard to break free from the clouds…  reason enough to rock sunglasses.  I put on some punk rock and off I headed for Pacifica High School.

I was welcomed at the school by Mrs. Wolfe, who had orignally approached me in Orlando last June with the prospect of coming to Oxnard, CA.  I had been hoping those words would come true ever since our convo, and now here I was.  The school was huge and I could clearly see that there was a sick theatre attached to the building…  But would I be speaking in the theatre??  YEs, I would be.  STOKED!!!

I had an entourage of student helpers and an insta-bro in a Junio named Alex.  As I set up and had my stuff set up for me, Alex and I chatted punk rock.  I was afterall in the home state of at least 50% of the bands I listen to and love…  Just one reason why I love Cali so much.  I met student after student as the theatre began to fill.  As my old skate video played on the big screen and Scarlett by Simi Valley’s very own Strung Out blasted I started to get really jacked for the presentation ahead.

The talk went as well as I could hope for.  The students totally seemed into it.  I have to say my favourite part of all was the brief Q&A following the formal (well as formal as my talk is formal) part of my talk.  The questions I was getting were awesome; the compliments I was getting were flattering and some even blush material and the random students running to the stage to hug me in front of an entire theatre filled with their peers was a first ever.  I like first evers!!!  I was stoked!  Being sung Happy Birthday (cha, cha, cha) was also pretty rad!  This was an amazing day.

The awesome ness continued on to the Oxnard Skatepark and then to dinner.  I had said at the school that students should all meet somewhere in town for dinner.  I wasn’t sure how many would show up.  But I definitely wasn’t expecting the crowd that did!  I am not quite sure how exactly to put it all in words, but I tried to put a video together describing the utmost gratitude and respect I have for the great people I met today from Pacifica High School.

This video is for you Pacifica V-Log, March 3, 2011

To all my friends.  Thanks and goodbye for now.  I hope to stay in touch and see you all again some day!!!

: )

Kevin

So it’s my b’day and I told myself that I was just going to chill and have a day for me…

HAHA…  Well it is now 1pm and I just finished creating a V-Log over the last four hours.  But I am stoked it is done!  Really stoked!!

Here is V-Log VII… 

This is from my final day in Winnipeg speaking on behalf of Manitoba Public Insurance’s Friends for Life Speaker Series.  The entire tour was epicly awesome…  I have nothing but great memories, so thanks to MIP, TADD Manitoba and everyone from the schools, hotel, punk show and everywhere else I met great people for an awesome early birthday gift.

I am now officially off to seize the day!

~: )

Kevin