Our Defining Moments

Can you change the world please? 17 year old ’underdog’ finds strength in running for office.

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Merrick Modun, who recently ran in the Vermont Primary for State Representative. He’s also an activist who believes in the power of youth voices and emphasizes addressing issues in his community to make the world better for as many people as possible. Growing up gay catalyzed Merrick’s desire to create systematic change in his community. It may surprise you to learn Merrick, at the time of recording, is just 17 years old.
Merrick has made it his mission to positively impact the world around him. He was inspired through his own internship with a local representative to run for the position. This experience revealed disparities he is keen to amend by lifting up historically under-represented voices.
Climate change is currently Merrick’s most passionate pursuit. Experiencing climate change-related events with increasing frequency is something that not only needs to be of concern, but it needs to be faced. He emphasizes that if we don’t do something about climate change today, we’ll be feeling the effects of this lack of action soon.
So how did Merrick end up on this path of politics and advocacy? It all started when he met with a teacher advisor at his school to chat about school board changes, and the advisor noted a representative in Montpelier had planned to retire. This was the moment he decided to run in the primary—even if his conscious mind didn’t know it yet.
The hardest part Merck found in running his campaign was navigating systems, such as campaign finance. Going door to door, on the other hand, wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. Although he didn’t win, he’s hopeful. He received over 600 votes, which is a great start for his following run, or for the next young person who decides to run for the state legislature.

Margarita Party for a Defining Moment win!

Today’s guest is Professional Musician Jake Schepps, who specializes in playing the banjo. He also runs a non-profit called Round Window Institute which offers professional development music camps while also publishing banjo tablature for players. The goal is to elevate the five-string banjo beyond its folk music roots.
Jake had also spent many years as a NOLS wilderness medicine instructor. The intention of the program is to teach outdoor skills and leadership skills, primarily to younger people. The students learn how to camp and travel safely, covering everything from planning, execution, and learning to pivot with the environment.
During the summer of 1989, Jake went back to Maine following a “mess explosion” of his first year at college. He spent a lot of time with his high school best friend at his home, and this is where he first encountered a NOLS catalog. At that point, he had never heard about NOLS before.
He was completely entranced by the photos within the catalog, as well as the stories of adventure. This, paired with an eye-opening moment that he didn’t necessarily have to be in college, made him realize he could just drop out. It was then he decided to pursue his outdoor wilderness education with NOLS. Finding this catalog would turn out to be his defining moment.
Jake naturally began to rise above the rest of the group at NOLS—which kind of scared him at first. Feeling seen for his accomplishments gave him a boost in confidence he’d never had before. He never grew up sure of what he wanted to be, but somehow everything he was meant for found him.

Healing With Inner Freedom After a Traumatic Event

Personal and executive coach Jan De Zwarte joins us for this episode of Our Defining Moments. Jan begins by delving into what his childhood was like, and his experience as an “import.” He wasn’t born where he grew up, so he was considered an outsider.
Jan met Peter at school when they were four. Their friendship connection was instant, and they both became part of a group who would go bird watching and enjoy nature together. They became best friends, continuing into adulthood. On May 1st, 2005, Peter was involved in a car accident. He was in the hospital for ten weeks, but he lost consciousness and there was nothing more the doctors could do.
His wife made the difficult decision to stop treatment and let him go. Following this loss, Jan had a lot of guilt and confusion. He wondered what would have happened if he were with Peter that morning. Would he have been driving and avoided the accident? Or would they have been in the accident together? He’ll never know.
A part of Jan’s healing process has been exploring his own inner freedom. All of us have moments where we try to do something but don’t get the results we want. It’s important to zoom in on those results and discover the subconscious connection you have to those results. Uncovering the mind-body connection attached to this is important for inner freedom.
When you go through such a traumatic event, you realize the world doesn’t pause. We can find significance and meaning in these events to help us continue moving on. This is what Jan learned from Peter’s death. All humans will meet their fair share of difficult times. When we start accepting this as a normal part of life, we can more easily let it go.
Inner Freedom is a CoachVille coaching program. Coachville, a transformational coaching school accredited by the ICF, can be found at coachville.com

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