Young Jessica Watson

Australia has once again proven to be its fickle self.  7 months ago we were all branding young Jessica Watson a stupid teenager, and now she is our new national hero.

I’m sorry but whilst she has done something rather remarkable, I don’t get it. 

For starters, she is not a hero.  As previously mentioned a hero is someone who saves drowning backpackers and small children for fires. Miss Watson is not a hero, she is an adventurer. 

History has seen many great adventurers such as Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Everest, Scott in the Antarctic, Burke and Wills and even Jeremy Clarkson & James May – the first men to DRIVE to the North Pole. Jessica Watson is not the first person to sail solo around the world though.  Granted she is the youngest, but she is still walking in the footsteps (or rather sailing the waves) of explorers of ye olde days.  

Not only that, she’s only 16 bless her. What the hell is she going to do with herself now?  To have achieved your goal in life by the time your 16 leaves a whole lot of life ahead of you.  History has proven that the only place you can go from the top is down.  The TV special, articles in Woman’s Day and New Idea and the inevitable book accounting her adventure that we are bound to see in the next month will surely put a bit of cash in the bank.  Then she has the profits from the sale of baseball caps that she is promoting on her website.  But then what?

Will she go the way of so many child prodigies and stars before her and go down the path of drugs and promiscuity (after all her Mother did let her go gallivanting AROUND THE WORLD on a tiny boat on her own for 7 months.. hardly the strictest of parents) or will she surprise us all?

Time will only tell.