A Pirate’s Life

There is nothing worse than waking up and realizing you were meant to be a Pirate.

I was around the age of nine when it dawned on me. For years my grandpa educated me on the ways of the pirate. We would pretend to sail the seven seas looking for the lost city of El Dorado and go on adventures through the Amazonian rainforest. He romanticized the stories of pirates, hiding me from the atrocities they committed. Yet in a way it allowed me to see the true nature of adventure and exploration that the sailors of the seven seas stood for. The word “pirate” meant to sail and explore the world and that is when I realized I was born in the wrong era: I was meant to live a life of adventure, I was meant to be a Pirate. Had the powerful overlords of the world been more inquisitive and precise with their calculations when they created me, I would have actually been one. Alas, there is not much else that can be done; unless the invention of time travel is just around the corner, the prophecy I was once meant to fulfill would vanish into oblivion.

Throughout the years since the epiphany first came to me, I have worked to balance my responsible and organized self with my rebellious and adventurous pirate spirit. When I’m not filming a movie, organizing events, or counseling my friends, I often let my imagination run free, even if for a few minutes, allowing my inner pirate to come out and play. I never owned a sextant, nor plan on doing so, yet, I commonly gaze at the stars and the constellations they form, attempting to track their patterns in the night sky during nightly walks with my dog. And when when my family goes to the beach, I take my brothers on a crab searching adventure (our version of scouting for a crew), scouring the crowded San Francisco beaches and tide pools for little crustaceans to gaze at in wonder. Even a hike through the Santa Cruz Mountains will often be accompanied by a little treasure map that my father and I will use to locate “geocaches” along the trail.

Now, at the age of seventeen, I regard myself as the modern Captain Kidd. Although I don’t embody the “pillage and burn” side of the Pirate life, the way I have embraced an adventurous lifestyle has compelled me to explore any activity, concept, or subject that attracts my attention. Historical accounts of pirates tell of hunts for treasure and booty—an insatiable thirst for gold—but while Pirates scoured the world for money, I long for knowledge. Where Sir Francis Drake sought to conquer Spanish treasure ships, I conquered the realm of musicianship teaching myself guitar and piano. Captain Henry Avery searched for the perfect congregation of Pirates to create an republic of misfits; I did the same as I helmed the mental health club to help those at Gunn High School in need. The image of Captain Kidd researching the metaphysical explanation of the ten dimensions may be strange, but to me, it is a perfect representation of the pirate spirit.

I know that when people think of the word pirate they don’t think of a teenager who likes to air guitar in his room and dream of making movies in Iceland (It’s also a chance to confront my rivals: the vikings!). But my unmistakable sense of adventure and curiosity defines me. I’ve become an avid astronomer, an aspiring filmmaker, philosophical nerd, a music geek, and an unqualified therapist. Every quest takes me to uncharted territory, breaching the limits of my knowledge and expanding my potential. I am an unappeasable pirate on a quest for knowledge, never satisfied with the treasure under the beach.