There are numerous people in the world who accomplish incredible tasks, surpass expectations, and live their lives as models for others. And then there are those who do none of those things, yet still make us chuckle. Whichever the case, these people should be appreciated and/or commemorated, so I went on a search for both kinds of people – those who can warm our hearts to the point of tears, and those who can make us roll our eyes with smiles on our faces. I wanted to compile a list of people whom I found inspiring, brave, or just funny. Without further ado, here are eight ordinary people with extraordinary stories:
1. A photographer saves his friend from slavery.
A man named Ben Randall, an Australian photographer, went to Vietnam many years ago and photographed 100 people. In 2011, a friend Randall met while there was reported missing. Randall heard the news and returned to Asia, hoping to investigate her disappearance. M., his friend, was a 16-year-old Hmong girl who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. To find her and raise awareness for human trafficking, he tracked down the 100 locals he’d photographed five years before and learned more about their lives. He met with 80 of them and wrote about his travels online. He started The Human, Earth Project as a means to inform people of the horrors M. would have faced. The story doesn’t end there, though: just last year, Randall located M. and M.’s friend P. – and rescued them both.
2. A woman stops a school shooting with only words.
Antoinette Tuff, a school clerk at an elementary school in Georgia, saw a gunman barge into the school and took action. She was not armed and had no prior training. However, she had a back story, and she knew the gunman did, too. She remained calm and merely talked to the man carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. She related to him, explaining that she had faced hardships as well; she was going through a divorce at the time, and her son has various disabilities. They talked for an hour, and she convinced him not to shoot anyone.
3. A man memorializes his father through his art.
Phillip Toledano photographed the last days he thought he would have with his father. Toledano’s mother died suddenly, and that event caused him to realize that his father’s mental state was deteriorating; he had no short-term memory, which made him continually forget what had happened to his wife. Telling his father of the tragedy that had occurred proved too much, so he began protecting his dad from the truth. He wrote short stories about different moments that he and his father shared and paired them with the photographs. He titled it “Days With My Father.” The result captures the beautiful relationship they had with one another.
4. Man walks across every country.
Well, not on water. Not everyone can be Jesus. Graham Hughes is the first person to visit every country in the world without flying. The guidelines were simple: no planes, no private taxis, no hitch-hiking, and no driving any sort of vehicle. Most of the journey had to be made on foot, but he could traverse by vehicle for short distances. He traveled to 193 UN member states and other territories in a span of four years. He called his trip The Odyssey Expedition, and he now holds the Guinness World Record for “visiting 133 countries in one year by scheduled ground transport” during the beginning of his trip. He has been awarded more since he completed the adventure.
5. This guy survived two atomic bombs.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived two atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, but he died in 2010 from stomach cancer, which was an unexpected way to go. He’s either really lucky or extremely unlucky, but, regardless, it makes a unique story! The Japanese government announced that Yamaguchi suffered a record amount of radiation and earned a monthly stipend as compensation. While getting hit by two bombs doesn’t do any good for one’s health, it did encourage activists to oppose nuclear warfare and demand a ban on nuclear weapons.
6. Amelia Earhart finishes her maiden journey.
Seventy-seven years after Amelia Mary Earhart took flight in 1937 and went missing over the Pacific, another woman named Amelia Rose Earhart decided to finish her flight. Freaky, right? It’s almost like her parents planned it or something. Earhart started The Amelia Project in Colorado that seeks to motivate women to gain confidence through aviation and to incorporate flight into STEM education. She flew the estimated 24,300 nautical miles and circumnavigated the globe, making only 14 stops in the process and ending Earhart’s initial expedition.
7. Thrill-seeker climbs the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio de Janeiro.
Well, the header says it all. Lee Thompson decided to take what the public is calling “the world’s best selfie” after somehow convincing the surrounding officers to let him scale the 98-foot-tall statue and pose at the top. The Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemer, statue is the third tallest monument of Jesus, and Thompson was able to open his eyes – once he stopped squinting from the sunlight – and see the world from Jesus’s point of view.
8. A guy plans to drink a cup of coffee at every Starbucks location.
Drinking a ton of coffee is any caffeine-addict’s dream. It energizes them, and each cup of coffee brings them joy. A man named Winter feeds off of the same dream, but Starbucks is the only place that satisfies his taste buds. Instead of brewing a mug of coffee at home, he travels to different Starbucks all around the world to buy that unpronounceable triple, venti, half-sweet, non-fat, caramel macchiato. I can only imagine the baristas’ looks when they ask for his name to put on the cup. Enjoy the coffee, my friend.
