Alexander Weinstein

“What I didn’t want: a low-octane life of draining jobs, counting the days till I’d have time to
mow the lawn again, counting the weeks till I could afford some plastic, beach-chair
vacation, counting the years till retirement when I’d be too old to enjoy it.
I was from a place built off those blueprints, where sprinklers went off in the
morning and whole neighborhoods became ghost towns during work hours.
I’d look out at all those empty houses, the exhausted adults returning home, the
whole sorry bunch living at low throttle, and it seemed like death. I wanted to
see the stars over Kilimanjaro, the sunrise after sleeping at the base of a killer
range, to breathe powder. You can stand on the peak of the world, knowing
you’re about to drop into the mouth of a canyon sculpted by wind, and if you
die, at least you die by your own rules. That’s why I gave my life to extreme
sports.”
― Alexander Weinstein, Children of the New World