PURSUIT OF PASSION REBECCA PRISTAVOK
PURSUIT OF PASSION REBECCA PRISTAVOK
DeDication I would like to dedicate this book to my dog, Cruz. You always bark and get excited whenever you hear a skateboarder coming towards you. You’ve also been there for me to hug when this project became too stressful to manage.
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Acknowledgements Thank you Freestyle Academy for making this project possible. I’d like to particularly thank Mr. Greco for helping me put my ideas on paper and Ms. Parkinson for assisting me through all Adobe Illustrator crashes. I’d also like to thank my father for giving me feedback on my writing, and my mother for being interviewed for my film.
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Table of Contents
9 11 16 22 26 30 32 35
Preface Introduction Andrew Langi Anti Passion Regret Conclusion Works Cited About the Author
Preface When I first heard about the documentary project, I was told that it needs to be captivating, entertaining, informative, and something that will stick with people. I instantly thought of Andrew Langi, a humorous, caring, and relatable skateboarder whom I consider to be a good friend. Langi works at Skateworks in downtown Los Altos and is friends with all of the teenagers that come through the shop. Being in his mid-twenties, Langi relates to the kids who want to learn how to skate. Skateboarding is expressive, there are no rules as to what you can and cannot do on a board as long as you aren’t breaking any laws. This then brought me to the topic of my documentary: following a passion regardless of what holds you back, such as laws. Langi’s job at Skateworks is not only to teach his students how to balance on a skateboard, but also to encourage children how to safely follow their passions. There are many stereotypes of skateboarders, most of which are true in most cases. But whether a passion is drawing, playing an instrument, or riding a skateboard, children need to be encouraged to do what they love and society needs to appreciate the passion of skateboarding.
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introDuction 4.0 GPAs, 5 AP classes each year, $60k college tuition per year. Students work themselves senselessly hoping to achieve their difficult dreams. College acceptance rates are lowering and students have to complete ridiculous courses with perfect grades in order for their college application to have a chance. The one question that students don’t get asked is; what is your passion? Passion is what makes the difference between working a job that you hate and working a job that you love. A man who loves his career is a professional skateboarder named Andrew Langi. It’s so hard for students to feel accomplished, so they strive for what will make them successful rather than what makes them happy. When people grow up under miserable circumstances, they tend to be unhappy
which could lead them into a negative life. A towering Tongan with a solid build. Starting with a short dark buzzcut often covered by a black Anti Hero beanie. Every-so-often, he grows it out to a mop of dark chocolate locks spiraling down framing his face. Dark sincere brown eyes with open doors into his personality shaded with long black eyelashes. Moving down to that smile. A missing front tooth which tells more about him than any story he is able to tell. Then a long and dense torso full of tattoos and scars from failed trick attempts. Broken fingers and toes speak for the falls and errors he encountered throughout his journey of skating. Every mark on his body helps him portray his story and speak for his character.
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According to HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SKATEBOARDING, compiled by students at Grinnell College, skateboarders are described as dangerous, careless, and lazy. Langi’s response to that was “I think skaters come off as lazy just simply because we do what we want, when we want, wherever we want, how we want. And I think, to some people who work a 9 to 5 job, um, you know, it– it probably comes off as jealous.” Langi argues that the skateboarding community is not lazy whatsoever, that they are actually envied by others. People who do as they please seem to be lazy because others think that in life, you have to do things that you dread doing, but these skaters did not chose to take that path. They instead chose to follow their passions and do what the love as their career. Similar to being surrounded by negatively influential people, having an unpleasant job can cause people to become depressed, regretful, and unmotivated. Depression is the most common mental illness in America. Nobody wants to spend eight or more hours, five days a week, doing something that they don’t enjoy. Right? Youths need to be encouraged to follow their dreams in order to be happy and successful later in life. Having a passion for something will encourage the kid to succeed in that field and do their best to stay out of trouble. Whether the child is passionate about sports, art, adventuring, or education, they should be encouraged to follow their dreams. By encouraging a child to pursue their passion, they get to devote time to it which diminishes time that could be spent on bad activities such as drug use, joining gangs, or committing crimes. It is also an expressive outlet. If a person is going through a hard stage in their life, having an outlet will allow them to express their feelings and have a better and more stable mental health.
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anDrew lanGi chaPter one
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Langi has been skating for the past 10 years and experienced the prejudices and hatred towards his skating lifestyle while growing up. Being in his mid twenties, Langi can relate to both the youth that is craving the thrill of skateboarding and their joy of pursuing their passions, as well as the parents with concerns about their child’s dangerous passion. After meeting with Langi, we discussed how skating has inuenced his life in a positive way by keeping him busy and passionate. Langi speaks from experience when he says that skateboarding lead him in the right direction. As a teenager, people suddenly get more freedom from their parents and are given more responsibility. Without the drive that comes with following a passion, youths are not given a direct reason to be responsible. This relates to Langi’s situation because through skateboarding, he found the family like community that encouraged him to stay away from drugs and supported him as he stuck with learning new tricks and excelling in what he loves.
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“I remember the time before skateboarding. I was already hanging out with the wrong kids in school and getting into mischief. You know, once I found skateboarding and the skateboarding community I found a different type of mentality growing up in that type of vibe. I picture myself without skateboarding probably in a gang or selling drugs or something. Or something definitely not positive. Skateboarding kept me off of the streets and at skateparks� Andrew Langi
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Anti-Passion Chapter Two
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A parent, guardian, and/or mentor’s support is one of the most crucial things to a child’s success. If a child is constantly having their dreams belittled, they will lose their motivation and pride. In THEIR OWN PATH: Why You Should Support Your Child’s Dreams, Kyla Giffi, contributor to The Culture Trip, writes about how her mother’s discouragement while growing up brainwashed her to believing she was something that she was not. From a young child and wanting to be a teacher to writing short stories all throughout Junior High, Giffin was discouraged by her mother for every career dream that she had. She wanted an artistic life, and her mother wanted her to fulfill her own dream to become a doctor which her mother was never able to achieve. Constantly being told that she is perfect for the job and it fits her
interest, Giffin slowly started to believe that she wanted to be a neurosurgeon. It wasn’t until a classmate told her that she was a great editor that Giffin realized that her dream was possible. When she told her mother, her mother specifically said, “If you want to contribute to society, be a doctor or a scientist” (Giffin). This kind of discouragement will only have negative consequences such as lack of communication, distancing, and hatred spewing throughout the relationship between the mother and child. A well known discouragement for skateboarding are skate stoppers. These are little pieces of metal put on benches, railing, and properties to prevent skateboarders from grinding their boards. The clips prevent property damage by making it
impossible to grind the skateboard against the object they are placed on and to protect the property owner’s from potential lawsuits. They are great for the property owner, but prevent the skateboarder’s from pursuing their passions. Most cities are trying their best to prevent property damage caused by skateboards, but they do not realize that they are forking the skater’s passion. “What are those metal dividers on benches?” Professional skater Caden Carter answers the question: “They’re skate stoppers, I know because I skate for a living. They are the most annoying thing and oftentimes have to be popped off with a crowbar. They are put there by ignorant individuals who have no understanding about skating and our roots. It is understandable
that they are in place to protect the establishment/business from skaters getting hurt on their property, but they need to understand that actual skaters would never threaten to sue because we got hurt, we know damn well what skateboarding is and the risk it take.” Carter’s frustration and words show the measures that skateboarder take to overcome their obstacles. If businesses and cities are putting stoppers throughout the cities, there needs to be another place for the skateboarders to practice and blow off steam, such as skateparks. To push the shunning on skateboarding to an even further level, the city council of Russell City, California, passed a ban on skateboarding. Some members of the city don’t mind the teens skating around, but many were happy with the ban. 23
It states that skateboarding is prohibited on all public streets and sidewalks, as well as private properties with signs prohibiting it. A local parent in Russell City was interviewed by WSAZ News Channel for their article Russell City Council passes ban on skateboarding, and she shared her thoughts on the issue: ‘“It was a little concerning to me as a parent having my small, little girls in the yard and also I feel it’s a danger to the people driving up the hill because they fly and they’re going very fast,” one neighbor said. “I’ve driven up the hill before and there was a skateboarder coming straight at my car, and I basically had to swerve the car to avoid hitting them”’(qtd. in Robinson). This is a valid reason to prohibit skateboarding, protecting children and lives of the skaters. With this ban passing, there needs to be a seperate place for the skaters to go. A longboarder named Chase Bates has different feelings about this ban. He believes that a skatepark would be a great thing to build for the younger kids with less control to go to to skate, but they don’t apply to longboarders who need their high speeds to skate down the hill. He doesn’t think that he and his fellow longboarders should be banned from doing. Bates states, “We wouldn’t do anything we weren’t capable of or anything we didn’t feel comfortable on. We try to promote safety. I’ve even seen kids on bicycles, younger children, that are riding, trying to go down a sidewalk or something and not wearing a helmet and I’ll try to say, ‘Be careful guys, if you’ve got a helmet throw one on’.” Bates is one of the few boarders who promotes safety and tries to encourage others to be safe. The only issue is that many of the younger children do not care for the safety and liability for others, and they escalate the problem. For individuals like Bates, his passion gets frowned upon and shunned, which deters him from succeeding in what he loves.
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reGret
chaPter three
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Along with skate stoppers, city officials, authorities, and most pedestrians frown upon skateboarding. It is very loud and skaters go quickly in pedestrian walkways. This creates tension between pedestrians walking along sidewalks and skateboarders passing by which causes people to view skateboarding as a crime. Imagine if you loved to do something. Imagine if it was your favorite thing to do. Imagine if after a long day, you go to do what you love, and you’re called names for doing it. Imagine if society shunned you for doing what you loved. Imagine feeling like a criminal for pursuing your passion. Being stereotyped. This is how skateboarders are treated. Some people don’t follow their passions when they enter the working world and it leads them to work jobs for money rather than because they enjoy it. This leads to miserable careers. Dr. Paul McNeil, the CEO at ScrappyLock, says, “Honestly, I wish that I had pursued entrepreneurship earlier. I allowed my fear of the unknown to cripple me. Find ways to work towards your passion, even if it is only a little bit at a time.” Dr. McNeil finally pursued his passion and started
his software solutions company. If children are encouraged to test new waters and find and follow their passions, they can do greater things. Having the city ban skateboarding and longboarding impairs the boarder’s drive to pursue their passion. The Russell City skateboarding ban is a perfect example of why skateboarding in the street should be banned, but for longboarders who can’t use a skatepark to their advantage, their passions become impossible to legally go after. Skateparks are an excellent way to provide a space for skateboarders to practice tricks and go as fast as possible into a bowl or onto a rail without putting pedestrians at risk or business owners at liability. But a skatepark does not benefit longboarders.
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Conclusion
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A solution to this issue could be creating a paved road going down a hill for only longboarders to go on. Either the city could build this path and create a fence surrounding it to prevent injuries, or longboarders could help create their designated spot. Skateboarders are notorious for building DIY skateparks, such as the one in Davenport, and doing their best to get a spot to themselves. The problem with DIY skateparks and if longboarders created their own DIY hill, is that it is illegal. The Davenport DIY skatepark was demolished and filled after it was built, but there was no skatepark built in its place. Before any of these issues can conclude, there needs to be mutual respect between the authorities and skateboarder. The authorities need to understand why these people do what they love, and the need to support them. Likewise, the skateboarders and longboarders need to respect the decisions made by city officials and they need to cooperate once they are offered a spot. If city officials build designated spots for skater’s and longboarder’s to pursue their passions, this issue would come to an end. Following your passion is crucial to becoming a strong, confident, and happy person. Adults need to encourage children to do what they love regardless of the money it will make and the unreliable incomes. As a child, learning to love something and try your hardest to succeed in it gives a pastime as well as a reason to behave and stay out of trouble. It is crucial that people are supported to follow passions, regardless of what the stereotypes may be. Understand why people have chosen their specific passion.
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WORK CITED
Giffin, Kyla. “THEIR OWN PATH: Why You Should Support Your Child’s Dreams.” The Mindful Word, 15 Aug. 2015, www.themindfulword.org/2015/path-support-childs-dreams/. Griptape. “Impact: How Skateboarding Saved My Life.” Cloud 9 Griptape www.cloud9griptape.com/blogs/news/impact-how-skateboarding-saved-my-life. Langi, Andrew. Personal Interview. 2, April 2018 Langi, Andrew. Personal Interview. 3, April 2018 Langi, Andrew. Personal Interview. 19, March 2018 Robinson, Kathryn. “UPDATE: Russell City Council Passes Ban on Skateboarding.” WBKO | Bowling Green, KY, WSAZ News Staff, 24 May 2017, 2:40, www.wsaz.com/content/news/Russell-City-Council-passes-ban-onskateboarding-423858403.html. Zimmerman, Kaytie. “When It’s Time To Dump Your Career And Pursue Your Passion.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 Mar. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/kaytiezimmerman/2017/03/05/when-its-time-to-dumpyour-career-and-pursue-your-passion/#6ea1e12c7073. Zive, Ruth. “Do What You Love! How to Identify & Pursue Your Passions.” Free Career Advice, The Muse, 4 Oct. 2011, www.themuse.com/advice/do-what-you-love-how-to-identify-pursue-your-passions.
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Rebecca Pristavok is a junior at Los Altos High School who is also attending Freestyle Academy. She enjoys spending her time with her closest friends, binge watching old movies, and playing with her doberman, Cruz. Living in the Bay Area her whole life, she loves adventuring the coast with her friends and going to concerts at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Rebecca wishes to attend a college in the West Coast, preferably in Southern California where she can pursue her passion of graphic design and creative writing.
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PURSUIT OF PASSION REBECCA PRISTAVOK