Much like the disheveled fur coat of a large Alaskan Malamute puppy, the economic structure of most African countries succeeds on two key ideological pillars.
I warned you Chloe… 😉
I think slipstream and Connected in Motion perhaps have a slightly different meaning for me than other Slipstreamers. Every event I’ve been too I have been ‘working’ and capturing moments for the video content on the youtube channel.
Before I get into the bulk of this post I feel like i should give a little bit of background on myself. I love being outside and am very comfortable outside but by the same token I am also very at home on a computer. In the past few years I’ve been spending loads more time on my computer and less time getting outside and being active. The effects of which were readily apparent to me, I was gaining weight and my BG’s weren’t great.
I’ve been a skier for my entire life (since I was 2!) and here I was just being a sedentary guy, becoming another statistic. I’d tried jogging but didn’t really have the motivation to stick with it and unfortunately for me, you can’t ski all year round.
I wasn’t motivated, and I didn’t even really realize that I was looking for something or someone to get me motivated.
Then in 2009 through my friend Sarah Ketcheson, I met Chloe. I had worked at Camp Huronda, but it had been quite a few years since I was there. Chloe explained the idea behind slipstream and what she wanted to do with Connected in Motion. This was a business meeting for me and so I didn’t think to much about the potential impact on that this would have on me personally. I was only thinking about how to not screw up the video for her and make something good.
The first slipstream came and went, I heard many people speaking about the ‘impact’ it had on them. I’ve been around other diabetics for a long time now; my older sister is a type 1 as well, and I worked at camp Huronda so I’ve had no shortage of diabetic friends. I think this is probably why Slipstream didn’t ‘change’ me all that much in the beginning.
After I’d finished the video for Chloe, it went up on the old website and people started seeing it. I’d met up with Chloe a bunch more times after Slipstream we’d chat about the video and about what was coming up for connected in motion. It wasn’t until after I went to the mud run that I realized what CIM was for me personally.
It has become an extended family of sorts, one that gently nudges and motivates me to keep active. Because of CIM I ran my first fun 5km (the mud run) then went on to run the Scotiabank 5k in Toronto. I would never have done this things on my own.
Fast forward to today and all the adventures I’ve been on with CIM.. canoe trips.. hikes.. skiing days..
Slipstream (and Connected in Motion for that matter) started out as a business relationship, one that I naturally had a vested interest in being Diabetic. Today I feel like part of a group, rather than just the guy with the camera.
Tech support questions aside, I consider Chloe one of my really close friends, one that I wouldn’t have met without that first Slipstream.
Because of my connection to Chloe and Slipstream I am also able to (hopefully) affect people with my work. Combining what I love to do (film) with something close to me (Diabetes).
I’ll wrap this up by saying I’m proud to be a part of something that has such a positive impact on people; Chloe has created something that truly fills a void in my life.
And Chloe… I was right about the Fedora, but I stand corrected.. it is a real thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_salt
By: Hank Devos
