Route 66: UC San Diego

Posted on January 28th, 2010

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I caught a bus down from Los Angeles. It was cheaper and faster than flying when you add the travel to the airport, waiting to board, boarding, flying, waiting for luggage, and then the taxi ride from the airport to campus. I left LA at 7:30am and got to campus by 10am. When I arrived at UC San Diego, it was raining cows and hogs. The signs that students use to promote events were flying everywhere because of the strong wind.

I spent most of the day working on the NSCS Route 66 Tour Promo video (link here) to the sound of the heavy rain. I just got all of the footage that morning and I wanted to get it up early enough for the UC San Diego team to use. I’m far from being a film editor, but it came out alright. I’m in awe at the capabilities of iMovie and all of the technologies that we have access to. These are the kinds of things that students should be learning in high school and college in addition to all of the theory.

This was the first night that everyone didn’t stand up to take Route 66 during my call to action at the end of the presentation and it surprised me. Questions ran through my mind like “Did I fail? Was my energy low? What did I do differently? What can I do differently?” At the same time, just because everyone stands up doesn’t mean everyone is committed. My primary concern is that people apply as many items on the Route 66 list to their self-education. Measuring that isn’t easy, but the idea of asking people for Route 66 stories to feature on our website every month might give us a better barometer of the integration.

I want to share a quick story about a young man named Kevin who has a passion for building things. He is known as the guy on campus with the wooden bike. Tommy has a picture of Kevin and I with the bike which we’ll upload soon. He said that it all started with legos when he was a kid and it just “built” from there. He served as a great example of someone committed to and demonstrating their passion for a long period of time. Becoming an expert at anything takes 10,000 hours of practice (20 hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 10 years) and Kevin is well on his way.

Tommy and I went out to dinner and I discovered that Waldorf salads are my favorite. I’m headed home to Oakland next before I reach UC Davis. We had to increase their tickets to 125 since they oversold. Patty said that their secret has been doing classroom announcements for the past week. I can’t wait to get there.

On to the next one…