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All was well for Levi, a little boy growing up on an island off the coast of North Carolina. But when a bridge is built, connecting the island to the mainland, his entire life gets turned upside-down.
From then on, Levi has to come to grips with change and the opportunities that come with it.
Love of home, love of a partner and love of family all seem to be falling apart. Slowly, Levi is pushed towards the inevitable — crossing that bridge to see what lies beyond the horizon.
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A young man must change when a bridge connects his island to the mainland. | The Moped Diaries
http://omeleto.com/204537/
Omeleto
http://www.youtube.com/c/Omeleto
http://omeleto.com
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:12
There’s an old country song says,
00:14
“Love can build a bridge.”
00:17
I mean, how beautiful is that?
00:20
But let me tell you, there’s a flip side to that coin.
00:23
Because a bridge built at the wrong place,
00:25
and at the wrong time…
00:27
can tear love apart.
00:31
This is my story…
00:35
Fall in love, because that obnoxious, little, cute 5-year-old is me, Levi.
00:39
That’s my older brother JR.
00:41
Now, we were raised on Colington Island
00:43
which is just off the coast of North Carolina.
00:46
At the time, Colington was known for its booming fishing industries
00:49
and picturesque long, white, sandy beaches.
00:53
Now, commercial longlining is what kept food
00:55
on our families’ tables for generations.
00:58
That is until the powers that be decided…
01:00
we needed a bridge to connect us to the mainland.
01:02
Now, what those powers did not know
01:05
is what happens when you put 10,000 concrete pilings
01:08
in the middle of fertile fishing grounds.
01:10
Those fish migrate to more hospitable waters.
01:14
And fishermen’s families are torn apart.
01:17
For us, it was a two-step process:
01:19
It started with the bank foreclosing on the big house.
01:22
And ended with mom heading to the mainland
01:24
in search of greener pastures.
01:30
The most important life lesson I’ve ever learned is this:
01:34
Sometimes people leave.
01:36
And sometimes, unexpectedly.
01:39
Take a deep breath.
01:40
Mourn the loss.
01:43
And start living again.
01:50
Dad wasn’t going anywhere.
01:51
New bridge or not.
01:53
He’d grown up here just like his dad.
01:55
And his dad before him.
01:58
You fished, you lived and you died on Colington.
02:01
Woohoo!
02:03
It’s my home!
02:05
Never leaving!
02:07
Love this God damn island!
02:09
People on Colington do not go down without a fight.
02:11
With all the big game fish gone, we turned to crabbing.
02:14
Dad knew boats, he knew them really well.
02:16
So Old Man Winki gave him a job on the docks.
02:19
I see your sign.
02:21
You want to work or you just want a paycheck?
02:22
No sir, I want to work.
02:25
Come on in.
02:26
You’re going to have a bigger lure
02:29
followed by a smaller lure.
02:32
And I promise you, the fish will always hit the smaller lure.
02:39
JR, Winki, Dad and me,
02:41
we were boys.
02:43
And then…
02:45
there was a girl.
02:55
I’m Rose.
02:57
I’m Levi.
03:00
And when you’re 10, love’s that easy.
03:03
I could have stayed in that water forever.
03:16
A local fisherman is dead tonight
03:18
after a fatal run-in with the minor bridge.
03:20
He was responding to an SOS call from a capsized hobbycraft
03:23
when the collision occurred.
03:30
Don’t take anything for granted.
03:32
Because you can’t choose what happens.
03:35
You can only choose how you respond to what happens.
03:39
Boys…
03:41
Let me take you to my favorite fishing spot.
03:49
Done.
03:51
Dead.
03:52
And in this case,
03:53
Winki chose to respond by illegally adopting us.
03:56
Get down. Get down!
03:58
Don’t let anybody see you.
03:59
Don’t let them know you’re up there.
04:01
He said there was no use filling out any paperwork
04:02
because he didn’t like pens, he didn’t like paper
04:04
and he sure as shit didn’t trust the system.
04:07
All right then, this lever that I told you runs the cable?
04:11
It comes off a winch in the back of the boom.
04:14
And a winch can be two things: It can run a cable…
04:17
or it can be a woman.
04:19
Now, I would never I’m better than anybody.
04:21
And I would especially never say that about my big brother JR.
04:24
But at this time, I just got dealt a better hand.
04:27
I had the love of a good woman to keep me on the straight and narrow.
04:30
And JR didn’t.
04:33
Whoa…
04:35
Don’t touch my stuff!
04:39
I’m going to get cigarettes.
04:41
Okay.
04:42
Don’t touch my stuff.
04:48
JR wasn’t going to get cigarettes.
04:51
He was going to rob a fireworks stand.
04:53
And that was the last time I saw him.
05:08
Yes!
05:09
Yeah!
05:10
Yooo… Yoo!
05:13
Yoo!
05:13
There’s something about being in love
05:15
and laying next to a hot body at night
05:18
that can make you forget everything.
05:20
But beware.
05:21
Because when one person is the source of all your happiness,
05:24
you’ve got all your eggs in one basket.
05:27
And the world is filled with wolves.
05:30
And wolves love to eat eggs.
05:44
Hey, how you doing?
05:45
I couldn’t help but notice your sign.
05:46
Do you still need a set of hands?
05:48
You looking for work or just a paycheck?
05:50
Looking to work, sir.
05:53
Hi.
05:55
What’s your name?
05:57
Rose.
05:58
Rose?
05:59
And you’re from here?
06:01
Yeah.
06:01
Yeah?
06:03
Your whole life?
06:11
I met someone.
06:14
When you know, you just know. You know?
06:28
The No. 1 problem with young love is that it’s fleeting.
06:32
It’s the most powerful emotion, but unfortunately…
06:35
it can also be the most temporary.
06:39
You get that magical moment, a weekend, a year…
06:42
But people change.
06:43
You can’t stop the erosion of time, it just happens.
06:46
Ah, you think it’s bad,
06:47
but let me tell you what hard times are really like.
06:51
Going through a breakup is like being shipwrecked
06:54
on the loneliest, saddest, most isolated island in the universe.
07:01
You can’t eat, you can’t sleep.
07:03
You don’t care about anything.
07:06
And the reason is you’re in withdrawal.
07:09
Love is cocaine for your brain.
07:13
Dopamine, serotonin and opiates are being created by the boatloads.
07:17
And when you come off of that, there’s nothing left.
07:27
I’m only doing this because I love you.
08:07
Levi, your life is your story.
08:10
Make it a good one.
08:15
And Winki was right.
08:17
The only way to break out of that chemical prison
08:19
that can shackle your brain is to try new things
08:21
that fire new synopses.
08:23
Getting out of bed, going running, feeling the sun on your face.
08:27
Discovering new things and welcoming new experiences
08:29
into your world.
08:31
You have to step out into the unknown
08:32
and just pray the road will rise to meet you.
08:35
And it will.
08:36
It has to.
08:38
There’s no option for failure.
08:39
When the time is right, you make your moment.
08:42
What will come or unfold isn’t anything to fear.
08:45
It’s what will become the stories of your life.
08:47
It’s a big world out there.
08:49
Go get it.
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video