TEDxKelowna- “What We Learned From 350 Million Kids”

Hello penguins, long time no post! My life’s been really busy these days and I obviously haven’t had time to blog, nor have I signed up for CPI. I’m doubting I ever will to be honest, it’s just not my interest anymore. And yes, I’ve heard about Rewritten, but I really don’t see the need to sign up.

Regardless, I came across a really interesting video on my WordPress dashboard from a post on Club Penguin Mountains. It’s a TED Talk about Club Penguin featuring Lane Merrifield, better known as Billybob. He talks about CP’s humble beginnings to the response from the fans- the love that formed what we knew as the Club Penguin community. It was really touching and nostalgic for me and I was surprised to find that it doesn’t have more views!

The part that stuck with me most was what Billybob said at the end about Club Penguin shutting down.

“…what I what I realized was that they weren’t upset about missing the mini-games, they’re not sad about[…] losing the ninjas…or the activities that were going on in Club Penguin. What they were most afraid of- what we’re all afraid of- was losing the incredible sense of community that had grown within the Club Penguin world… and I’m so, so thankful to have had an opportunity to be a part of that community. I’m so thankful to have had a front row seat to so many amazing kids lives. And most of all I’m incredibly privileged and honored… I mean to see their creativity is amazing. I’m incredibly privileged and honored to have been able to serve side-by-side with such an amazing team that took their imagination and their creativity and brought it to life every single week. And so I just want to say… you know, I firmly believe that our world would be a much better place if all of us were just a little bit more childlike. If we could learn from these kids, and maybe be a little bit more fearless with our creativity, if we could help each other out a little bit more, if we could be generous with one another, if we could work together a little bit better. If we can become better at sharing when things are frustrating to us, or are hurtful or harmful to us… you know sometimes[…] we maybe just need to take a breath and not take life as seriously, not take ourselves as seriously. But most of all, maybe for today, we can all start by taking just a little bit more time to listen.”

I’m not crying, someone’s chopping onions. Just watching this video made me feel honored that I was one of those kids once and that I was part of that awesome community. Maybe I was even one of the blogs they looked at! But thank you, Billybob, for those kind and inspiring words- no one could have said it better than you.

Waddle on, Greeny.