“The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village” -Marshall McLuhan (Canadian communications theorist)
Brace yourselves, this one's going to be a little touchy feely.
Into the first week of the Expedition 206 voting process I was attending a book reading that was part of Toronto’s literary festival, and a complete stranger approached me and said, “I know you.” I am not going to lie and say this has never happened to me before, because it’s a common occurrence when you are out and about in your hometown. You are bound to run into your old pre-school peers, ballet classmates or hockey coaches, so with this in mind, I began thinking back. Just as my brain started flying through the proverbial Rolodex of my past, trying to figure out where I knew this guy from, he offered, “You’re the Coca Cola girl.” I laughed. I guess I was, to him. He explained how he had received an email about Expedition 206 from a Turkish-Canadian Yahoo group he was a member of, and assured me that him and his friends would vote for me every day. I was smiling from ear-to-ear, almost speechless until my mouth decided to do the right thing. I thanked him, hugged him and tried, in few words, to express my humble gratitude for his gift of ‘support.’ To feel the warmth of a stranger’s words say “I support you,” was heart-warming, to say the least. As the link of people rallying for us increased, the international community we seemed to have built began to grow. From China to the USA, from Canada to Australia and all the way to Turkey, we were connecting the dots from my hometown to Greer’s to Brendan’s and back. We were creating a journey of ideas and common goals: To help Team WOW! travel around the world, all through word-of-mouth. It was almost like our name and our team was already traveling at light speed from one continent to another. How did each person come to trust our mission, who we were and what we were all about? Where did this trust come from, how did it get nurtured and how has it flourished through these 16-days? To think that through supporting Team WOW! my aunt supports Greer, Brendan’s cousin supports me, and Greer’s friends support Brendan is odd but instills the feeling of a worldwide community of sorts (in the essence of Marshall McLuhan's quote above.) With their ongoing gestures of kindness, our ever-expanding networks of devoted friends, family, co-workers, teammates, acquaintances and strangers have become a part of our realities. Is this really for real though? Although the virtual hand of each of these supporters has been extended to us in a time when we have needed it, there is no difference between real and virtual when the end result is the same: a vote, sometimes 6 votes, that could change our lives indefinitely. However, online votes were not the only form of support that we received, people got creative with how they showed their love. To hear that Brendan’s cousin had started and was managing a Facebook group on our behalf was the first step towards an understanding of how much larger this project was then just the single members of Team WOW! It continued with Coca Cola Turkey’s help with having our story published in major national newspapers across Turkey. With the recognition Greer received through her Sydneysider community, Ogilvy in Brazil and the enjoyment people around the world got from the creepy crawlies and reptiles she tamed on camera, the list goes on. To know that Team WOW! had reached out to at least 500 people worldwide who committed their time and energy to helping us achieve something outstanding may be one of the most selfless, silent fits of collective activism I’ve been involved in. I keep asking this, and sometimes I know the answer, and sometimes I have no clue, “what did we do to deserve this?” The reality was that I remember standing beside Brendan during our week in Atlanta and we said to eachother, in unison, “every thing we have ever done, all the languages we’ve learned, the places we’ve visited, the education we’ve received, the talents we’ve practiced, the people we’ve met, have all been leading up to this moment.” And we stood there, together, as a team, in silence, with the knowledge that no matter what happened, we had been allowed to partake in this once-in-a-lifetime experience. And it has been AWESOME! Haha.
We hope that you were entertained by the Daily WOW!s we shot and presented to you from our respective communities. It was the least we could do to thank each of you for having such big hearts and always reminding us that we were doing the right thing, that we deserved all of this and that you would love us no matter what. I would personally like to thank my husband, Joe. Am I ever glad I married you! Thanks for keeping me both grounded and on cloud nine all at the same time! You amaze me. My friends and family, your support throughout my life has been my greatest asset. To the Turkish community all over the world, your love and open arms is all I’ll ever need to feel connected to you wherever I go in this world. I am so proud of my heritage. Coca Cola and Ignition, this experience would not have been possible without your belief in our talents, our abilities and our teamwork. Thank you for bringing us together, we had a blast! To the Atlanta 18 (I guess I’m including myself), you rocked my pre-wedding celebrations, that week we spent together will be engraved in my mind as one of the best, most inspiring and exhilarating weeks of my life! I love you guys completely-is it possibl to feel like a family in 7 days?!? Finally, to my teammates. Greer, not only did you confirm your strengths as our willing and able project manager, but your “guerilla” tactics, fearless prowess and openness to everything truly impressed me. Am I ever lucky to have met a smart, driven, hilariously witty sweetheart like you! And Brendan, you crazy cat! Your talent in front of and behind the camera inspired me to no end. Your loveable personality and ability to make people laugh were characteristics I already knew you had, but to see your interaction with your students and your ability to enjoy the simplicity of a morning bike ride truly added a different, more profound dimension to the Sea Bass persona. I thank you both for teaching me so much in the short time we, literally and virtually, spent together.
To the Team WOW! Community (I like the ring of that), for fear of sounding cliché, you got us to where we are are! Thank you.
WOW! Takimi’ni destekleyenlere tesekkurler. Biz sizin sayenizde buradayiz!
Merci a les personnes qui on votez pour Equipe WOW! Nous sommes ici parce que vous avez nous donner une chance!
In conclusion, I repeat, and ensure that I NEVER lose sight of this one feeling: I am just happy to be here.
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