June 12, 2019. Tess, another Tofino surf-sister, shared the ride back into town with Tegan and me after our lesson in the wash off of Cox Bay. I think Tess is tapped into something, and I am jealous of her sensibility at such a young age. She is nothing if not authentic. She didn’t hesitate at all to agree to answer my three questions. I loved her answers.
Are you in love?
“Um, I’m not literally in love with a person but I would say that I’m in love with the aspect of being in a new place, like the first couple weeks in your new spot and everything’s new and you’re getting to know everyone, and like, all the ‘getting to know you,’ questions–conversation is endless and it’s all just this like exhilarating feeling of what it could be. It’s an exciting time and there’s nothing like that in the world!”
Who has been the most influential person in your life?
“Oh my gosh. Um, I’m going to need to think about this one. (Laughs) Honestly I find that almost every person I talk to I try to find influence from. And it’s not just like getting to learn different aspects of someone–getting to know them even for just a few hours, you can pull different attributes that can influence your life in such a positive way, and I can’t think of one person that has like made me who I am. It’s just little pieces of everyone I interact with and all pieces of, like, the world and the experience that I’ve had so far.”
How do you feel about the future?
“I’m a person with high anxiety and I overthink things a lot, um, so the future’s always been, like, very heavy on my heart, especially with the state that we’re in. I try to be hopeful about MY future because that’s the only thing you CAN be, I think, at this point. But, I am a bit weary–weary in a good way because that makes people work harder. If they’re not nervous at all then they’re just going to sit back and relax, but I don’t’ think we’re in a place where we can just sit back and relax. We need to take action, and like, work towards the things that we think are most important and try to work to be a better, stronger community on this planet.