I got home from school today to a mass of notifications from the Facebook post I had done. It had over 25 shares, nearly 100 likes, comments galore and an estimated 10k views. It seems the post reached all corners of the earth with teachers from Canada, Australia and Europe congratulating me and saying they would share it with their year 12’s. I also received phone calls and emails, as well as personal messages regarding the project, some of which were to congratulate, others who wanted to sponsor in some way, and others who just wanted to be a part of it.
To be honest it was rather overwhelming…
Instead of diving into the midst of everything, I decided to gather myself and try and get some more journal writing out the way. However I couldn’t ignore it for long and I had start replying to people. Some of the notable comments were from a parent at the school called Brendan, who said that if I was interested in 360° VR launches, I should speak to him. I didn’t know what he had in mind, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Another notable message was from the chairman of the Board of Trustees at the school who was over the moon with the project, as it apparently brought good publicity to the school. He also said that he could organize for reporters from Die Burger and the Argus to come and do a photograph news article on the project, which is exactly what I had planned at the beginning of the project but had no idea how to go about. In addition to this, he wants to meet me tomorrow so that he can find out more.
I never knew that this would have such a big impact on people and the society, or how many doors it would open up. It seems the whole project has been flipped on its head by a single post. Instead of me asking for help from people, I am getting requests for people to help me. It will take a while to process this emotionally, so I spent the rest of the day getting my project folder on the computer cleaned up and copying all the photos and videos from the whole project to it.
I also got the reports for both the missions written up, which were uploaded to the dashboard website my dad has been working on since Friday, along with the additional photos of the launches and recoveries.
I ended off the day sending emails to Rian about meeting him on Thursday, to Brendan about the 360° camera, to Timothy Hutchings regarding Ripstop Nylon in Cape Town and to Rob Wyly, who knows someone who works with tracking solutions, which I could potentially use as a backup.
All in all one of the best days of my life, as I have something that can never be taken away from me. Doors have been opened and opportunities are becoming more frequent. This is really incredible, however I have to be in complete control of what I say and do from now on, as I am being watched a little more closely.
Tomorrow I will have a meeting with Thomas and I will try to get up to date with my journal, as that is what is holding me back the most.
