// May 8th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // Australia
Just a quick couple of words before I head to bed. The winner of this incredible ride is Ben Southall from the UK. Congratulations to Ben and I have no doubt in my mind that he would be an absolutely fantastic island caretaker. He has my full support, without a doubt.
my final congratulations to Ben Southall at the "Last Night Street Party" (even though it wasn't on a street). Looks like we are about to smooch, but that's a negative. No offense Ben, but you are not my type. <photo courtesy of Erik Rolfsen>
I would like to grab on excerpt from an interview that I did with channelwhitsunday.com BEFORE the final 16 were announced. (click here for the full interview)
5. What is the most important thing you have learned during the process?
I have garnered so much from this process. On the surface I learned what the PR business was like, I learned a lot about the islands of the Great Barrier Reef and the coral reef systems, the environmental threats surrounding the region, etc, etc. But I think even if I didn’t make the next stage, I would be completely satisfied and grateful for the process because the BJITW campaign allowed me to really reevaluate my life, career wise and also allowed me to reassess what my ultimate goal in life is. Many people point to the big salary and think that’s a goal in my life, but on the contrary. If I were to go into details about all this, this answer would get very long, but here’s the gist. The BJITW campaign helped me realize that my ultimate goal in life is to leave a significant impact in the world, to give back more to the world than I have taken from it in the end, and all I have done up to this point in my life is to take from it. It helped me to see that I had forced myself to become “satisfied” with where I was career wise, education wise, life style wise but now I have this new motivation, strength and desire to do more, to become better and to aim higher.
6. Should you not eventually become the IC, what does life look like after the dust has settled?
After all the hoopla ends, you’ll still see me pursuing my DREAM JOB, the BEST JOB in the WORLD for ME! I actually got a book deal here in Korea with the attention this entire campaign has brought me, so I have to finish that within the year. I plan on wrapping up my stay here in Korea within the next year or two and I want to go live and travel through the rest of the world for about 6 – 12 months, mainly in Africa and South America, two continents I haven’t been to, other than Australia and Antarctica. After that, it’ll be grad school, although I haven’t exactly settled on the subject. Right now, I’m leaning towards international relations and broadcast journalism. Following that, I want to do a stint with the Peace Corps before settling down at an NGO that works for a cause that I’m really passionate about so I can always be happy and motivated about going to work no matter the pay. But with all this said and done, I know from experience that you can have all these plans set out for yourself, but you never really know where life is going to take you. One thing is for sure, I’m going to be taking the necessary steps to make sure I live my life to the fullest.
In the upcoming days, I will continue to produce video blogs and blogs on the entire BJITW process. I have over 180 minutes of raw footage that I need to edit and turn into videos so I have a lot of video editing ahead of me, but I don’t mind.
I’ll show you all the fun that we had and also share you with HONEST & TRANSPARENT assessment of the entire process. I know Erik from Vancouver is also offering this to the masses, but if you have any specific questions, please let me know in the comments.
Right now, I’m sitting in the Brisbane Hilton, on an executive floor (free upgrade courtesy of the hotel) getting ready for bed before one more night of adventures around Brisbane. TQ has given most of us an extra couple of days to travel in different locations around Queensland. Kinda like a “thank you” to us and also to squeeze the last little bit of media exposure they can out of us, not that I mind at all.
Today was an absolute blast and the first time that this entire trip felt like a vacation. My TQ rep, Kathryn came and picked me up at the hotel and we went to Moreton Island where I probably had one of the most exciting and entertaining time for this entire trip, on par with some of the activities on Hamo and the GBR. Just to quickly list a few things: I went sand boarding down 150 meter sand dunes, bathed in natural tea tree oil fed spring water, picnic on a picture perfect beach, quad riding through sand dunes and fed wild dolphins, not to mention actually sitting down and ENJOYING the sunset. Come to think of it, I do not remember watching a sunset during my entire time on the Whitsundays which is a shame and I think we should have had some more private time to explore other parts of the island, but we were just on such a tight schedule. Anyways, that assessment will come later.
On the slate for tomorrow: cuddling a koala and petting some kangaroos, climbing Story bridge in Brisbane & picking up some gifts.
Keep a look out for massive blog updates but give me some time to get them up because the amount of raw material I have is simply ENORMOUS!
