A short personal vlog by Sandi L Boucher (aka Red Thunderbolt) filmed at a quiet northern lake while at camp. She recounts watching loons and then a family of ducks, focusing on one adventurous duckling who wanders ahead of its cautious family. Sandi reflects on whether that behavior signals a "go-getter" or "vulnerable" stance, relates it to her own identity as the family go-getter, and invites viewers to consider which they are. The piece closes with a friendly sign-off and a teaser for future videos.
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Hello again. If you saw yesterday's video, the loons made me cry. The ducks made me laugh. Let's talk about it. Hello, everybody. It's Sandy Boucher here once again. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the loon clan, a proud member of Seine River first nation in Treaty 3 territory in Northern Ontario. And as I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I got to go to camp, and I still get up early in the morning, even at camp. So I had the chance to be sitting down at the dock by myself. And yesterday, I shared the story of the loons and how they made me cry. But then the ducks showed up. So you got to picture this northern lake, super quiet. I'm sitting at the end of the dock all by myself. There's reeds off to the right because it's a shallow lake. And suddenly I noticed movement in the breeds, and I was like, what the. What the. What's going on there? And out of nowhere comes this little duckling, and he's on a mission. He bops into the reed and bops back out and bops into the rain and heads around the dock, and off he goes. And I'm like, where in the world did you come from? You're out here by yourself. What in the world? And then I notice, like, 30ft back, there's Mama. Three siblings. They're very methodical. They're. They're going into every crevice of the lakeshore looking for food. Not like Mr. Adventurer dude, who's just bopping in here, bopping in there, sees something in the distance, goes after it, misses a whole bunch of stuff along the way, and they're slowly moving. And I couldn't help but notice the difference, the distance between the one sibling and mama and the others. And I couldn't help thinking, you know what? Someone look at that little adventurer dude and think, go, getter. You go get them. You're gonna win. Other people would see that little go getter and think, vulnerable. Get back. Get back to Mama where it's safe. Eventually, Mama caught up. Eventually, he found something that attracted his attention so much, he stuck around. And the rest of the family got there, and they were reunited. Nothing bad happened. But I couldn't help giggling because I know. I know the truth. And I know any single member of my family would tell you that little go getter was me. I was, as my brothers would say, I was the cause of every gray hair on my mom's head. And I regret the gray hair on my mom's hand. I don't like the fact that I caused her stress. But you know what? Like that duck mom. I don't think she minded because she knew that's who I am. And I'm going full speed ahead. I'm not waiting for the crowd because I see something shiny in the future and I gotta go get it. I don't know. Let me know. Are you a go getter or are you back with the siblings? Either way, as long as you're being who you are, that's what you should do. Until tomorrow, I have something different for the rest of the week. Stay tuned. I love you. Bye. Bye.
