Spring Break
149,425 vertical feet teaches humility
Cece Wildeman
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Verve
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For some, these are just 26 letters making up four words. But for Bo Parfet, a CSU alumnus and author of the book, it's the lesson learned by climbing the Seven Summits ÂÂ-- the highest mountains on each continent.
Parfet is an energetic man at the age of 31. He has a spring in his step matched only by that in his voice, and he is alive. More alive than most people. To say he has an air of livelihood about him would be an understatement.
His mouth is full of Buffalo Chicken pizza as he pauses from speaking to throw his hands in the air and exclaim "Delicious!" in the quiet and classy California Pizza Kitchen. He doesn't care. He's just happy to have pizza.
And after spending months on Everest in two tries at the summit -- eating Snickers, Ramen noodles, yak meat and rice and beans -- who wouldn't be ecstatic for pizza?
'For me, it was racecars'
If one were to define Parfet by strict boundaries, he is a businessman and a mountaineer. But he's always wondered if he would have been a racecar driver if he'd grown up around it, he said.
"If your parents put a golf club in your hands at 2 years old, would you be the next Tiger Woods?" he asked. "I've always wondered that question. And for me, it was racecars."
Parfet grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., with two sisters, a brother and parents whose divorce wasn't smooth. Amid what he called a "tough home environment," he was seeing letters backwards because of his dyslexia. In first grade, Parfet started receiving special help in class, but, nonetheless, as he stood with his parents, his second grade teacher told them he would never graduate high school.
"Retrospectively, what it taught me was that if I could make it through a day of first grade, I can make it through anything," he said.
Remember, the man has climbed the highest mountains on Earth, an adventure totaling 149,425 vertical feet. But for him, it was still easier than first grade.
Now Parfet has come to a very stern conclusion about adversity. He says it can be a debilitating obstacle or a tremendous motivator. For him it was both, leaving him feeling worthless as a child and motivated as an adult.
"Because of all those people that told me I couldn't achieve, there's a fire in my belly that still burns today," he said. "And I need to thank them because I have tremendous drive."
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