As I sit here, mentally preparing for the week ahead, I can’t help but feel humbled. Life has changed in so many profound ways since Kayaking the Keys for Hope 2024. Some changes have been beautiful—like proposing to the love of my life or watching my nephew grow into his own. Others have tested me in ways I never expected.

Yet through it all, I’ve been given a gift: the ability to wake up each day and choose how I want to live.

That’s a luxury these kids don’t have.

Exhausted after a long day at work? Imagine enduring another round of chemo. Uncomfortable from the heat outside? Picture the cold sterility of a hospital room. Stressed by too many decisions? Imagine having no say in your own future.

Yes, life can be unpredictable. But for most of us reading this, we’re surrounded by opportunity. We get to decide. We get to dream.

These kids don’t. Their choices are limited. And for over 40 years, those options haven’t changed much. That’s not just sad—it’s unacceptable.

Kids shouldn’t need masks just to safely see their friends. They shouldn’t be experts at making hospital rooms feel like home. They shouldn’t have to put their childhood—and their dreams—on hold.

Sebs shouldn’t be a story. Or a logo. He should still be here.

So when people ask me what goes through my mind out on the water—what keeps me coming back to this mission year after year—I tell them:

Sebs.
My nephew.
My future child.
Every kid I’ve met on this journey who’s fighting a battle they never chose.

I paddle to stay connected to something greater than myself. I paddle to keep HOPE alive.

Because if we lose that—if we lose the promise of a better tomorrow, the belief in something more, the love that drives us forward—what do we have left?

No one should ever have to try to answer that question.

 

Together we're funding innovative research for childhood cancers. SebastianStrong is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that funds discovery science to cure childhood cancers and supports families affected by this disease. It has received the highest level of recognition for transparency from GuideStar, the world’s largest source of information about nonprofit organizations. When you support SebastianStrong, you are helping to ensure that no family has to face childhood cancer alone. You are funding HOPE.