***News***
I - SIMPLY - CAN’T BELIEVE IT.
If someone, at the beginning of the campaign, had predicted that in just over three weeks I would receive MORE THAN €8,000 in donations, that in just over three weeks I would be able to finance not only the printing of the first 200 copies of my book, but even the first two educational trips of “Ondevitare”, I would most likely have considered that person crazy.
Sure, I hoped that the project would gain the success and attention that I believe deserves any work in which so much time has been invested, but above all so much life, so much desire to make anyone who takes a look at it understand how damn much the designer believes in what he says . But I never expected everything to go so well, I never expected to exceed the first goal of €3,000 in just 48 hours, I never expected to struggle to keep up with the dozens of messages received.
Each and every word of yours, each and every public or private attestation of esteem and trust of yours, every single penny you’ve wanted to donate to me, will remain FOREVER engraved in my heart.
ANY ADDITIONAL EURO RAISED FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN WILL BE USED TO FINANCE THE TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK INTO ENGLISH.
I love you.
A love that comes right from the soul.
As that is the part of me you’ve touched.
***
***News***
Astonished, amazed, dumbfounded, astounded, incredulous, surprised, ecstatic, shocked, bewildered, flabbergasted, floored, discombobulated.
This is how YOU, YOUR AFFECTION, YOUR ESTEEM and YOUR TRUST are making me feel: speech-less!!!
Therefore, it is better to put the words I’ve got left into action: if even the €8,000 mark is reached, it will be possible for me to start the second education trip (to be held in the wonderful Stockerau, 20 minutes from Vienna), bringing with me one donor (or a relative) that is over 18 years old, that lives in Europe and that I will draw from the hat at the end of this fundraiser, paying him or her all the transport costs (for information on other costs and for all the details consult the insert "FALLO!" in the "News" section of this page, which is located right above, under the presentation video).
TOGETHER WE-CAN-MAKE-IT!
***
A book to tell about a Sea of Conditioning. A project to make Education inside it. A fundraiser to make both dreams come true.
LET’S MAKE THEM COME TRUE TOGETHER!
Why am I attending university?
That’s what I asked myself far too many times just as I was attending it. Why am I attending a university despite feeling, somewhere inside of me, that this is not what I want? Why am I attending a university without having ever really decided it?
The answer that I managed to give myself a posteriori is dramatically elementary: because at the end of high school I did not seem to have alternatives. Because the future, instead of being painted as that Sea of Alternatives it actually represented, had been offered to me and my classmates as a script already written, as a Sea of Conditioning.
With a scientific diploma you’ve got nothing in your hands!
Without a degree, nowadays, you are nobody!
Nobody had told us that in order to make truly oriented and truly personal choices in life, first and foremost one has to understand WHO HE IS and WHAT SHE’S DOING IN THIS WORLD. Nobody had taught us to look inside, before than around us. Nobody, in essence, had ever really dealt with our education.
‘Cause it’s enough to open a vocabulary to realize how education should simply consist of a series of practices aimed at bringing to light something that the individual already has within himself and how who educates should have the sole and only task of finding the right key to open each one to his own interior world. And it’s enough to open our eyes to realize how this is not what’s happening, to see how society, rather than drawing out of individuals that voice they already have inside them, seems to worry a lot more to induce them to keep silent and follow a script.
That’s why...
That's why for 12 long years my boat and I have remained at the mercy of the waves of this Sea of Conditioning ending too often to be overwhelmed by them, to make decisions dictated by the voice of others and not by that of instinct, decisions that have made them immensely happy and me terribly unhappy. Decisions that I would not like to repeat. Decisions that I would like no one else to repeat.
That's why once I discovered my compass, once I landed on my Island and finally found the Treasure I decided to tell my story. That's why I’ve chosen to entitle it: "Ondevitare" (a neologism created from the Italian statement “onde evitare”, meaning “in order to avoid”). But would a book possibly solve the root cause of hundreds of other boats adrift in that sea? No, because at the base of everything there was not a writing problem... there was an education problem!
That's why "Ondevitare" is not only the title of the story of that small boat on the cover, which depicts certainly me (and that could very well depict you too!), but also the name of the "vessel" that I present inside.
... “Ondevitare” is also a vessel!
A “vessel” that I would like to build to return to the Sea of Conditioning of the everyday life and go to the boarding of the traditional way of conceiving education. How?
Well, first of all by launching the A.M.O. (the Alternative Manifesto of Ondevitare, which you will find in the "News" section of this page during the campaign), finding those who, on an educational level, feel on my same wavelength (on my same boat!) and starting to baste a crew.
And then by implementing a series of projects (like “FALLO!” - word meaning “DO IT!” in Italian -, a travel agency organizing educational trips) to welcome on board any person who does not yet - or not entirely - feel aware of her inner resources, to help her getting in touch with her compass and to ensure that she can then resume navigation finally endowed with a destination and a motivation.
That’s why...
That's why in the logo of this “something” that does not yet have a definition and that I call "vessel" (it could be a social promotion association, it could be a start-up, it could be something else), I imagined a rudder. A rudder gives direction, but in this case, resembling a sun, it also gives hope.
That's why "Ondevitare" is written with a lifeline, perfectly indicating at the same time the rope used in sea rescues and the life line present on our hands.
That's why his motto would like to be: "A... mare il prossimo!" (an Italian word pun meaning at the same time “Love others!” and “At sea the next!”)
That's why the goal of this fundraising is not only to reach € 3,000 to print the first 200 copies of the Italian version of a book, but also and above all to metaphorically launch something much bigger, something much more important. Something that you could help build, something you could be part of, something that you could benefit from! Something that just for now would be limited to Italy, in order to assess whether it works or not, but that clearly aspires to become international.
That’s why all contents on this page have also been translated in English, that’s why I’m already searching for a translator for the book, that’s why I’ve produced a double-language podcast to let you too discover the story I’ve written in the book (you’ll find the link to that it in the “News” section of this page). That’s why I can spoiler to you only (Italian people won’t find out about this until later on in the campaign) that if we went beyond the 3.000€ mark and reached at least the 6.000€ one, you too - IF YOU LIVE IN EUROPE AND LOVE TRAVELLING - could be in for a big, final prize.
But that’s also why I would totally understand if you deemed it too selfish of me to ask for your help in printing a book without being able to offer you that very book in exchange. And that’s why, if you still decided to believe in this project and... drop a free donation in the “DROP-box” (at the very bottom of the reward section here on the right), I would still want to give you something:
- If your free donation was between 15€ and 30€, YOUR NAME would be transformed into a wave and become part of that “Sea of People” printed right inside the book (check the second picture in the reward section here on the right to see what I mean);
- If your free donation was between 30€ and 60€, YOUR NAME would be transformed into a wave and become part of that “Sea of People” printed right inside the book + YOUR SMILING FACE and YOUR NAME would become part of Ondevitare’s newsletter “S-MAIL”, the newsletter aiming to bring a smile to - and brighten the day of - its readers (check the third picture in the reward section here on the right to see what I mean);
- If your free donation was between 60€ and 100€, YOUR NAME would be transformed into a wave and become part of that “Sea of People” printed right inside the book + YOUR SMILING FACE and YOUR NAME would become part of Ondevitare’s newsletter “S-MAIL”, the newsletter aiming to bring a smile to - and brighten the day of - its readers + YOUR NAME, YOUR SMILING FACE and YOUR STORY/LIFE PROJECT would become part of a dedicated page on Ondevitare’s website (check the fourth picture in the reward section here on the right to see what I mean).
... “Ondevitare” is a lot more than just a book!
In part you have certainly already understood it, but there are at least three other reasons that make this book a little special.
NUMBER ONE: THIS IS NOT JUST A BOOK THAT YOU READ!
This is also a book that you watch and that watches you.
A book that you listen to and that listens to you.
A book that speaks to you.
In what sense?
Well, in a clearly metaphorical sense, but also in a much more practical one. Since it is said that an image is worth more than a thousand words, I thought that a video or a voice note can be worth even more than two thousand. Therefore, I dotted the narrative with a myriad of QR codes to let you see with my own eyes, to make you feel with my own skin, to make you live in the very same way my own heart does.
For example: let's say that you are reading to the light of a table lamp of when, during the trip to Lapland, I found myself bathing in the Arctic Ocean at -18° in the tiny village of Bugoynes, in the extreme north of Norway. Of course, I can do my best to describe in words the adrenaline that was flooding my veins while running at breakneck speed down the cliff or the fear when I started not to feel my feet in the water anymore... But do you want to compare this with experiencing all of that as if you were there with me? (Try scanning the QR code with your mobile phone!)
NUMBER TWO: THIS BOOK IS NOT WRITTEN LIKE MANY OTHERS!
It took me more than two years to write the 650 pages that make it up. You can perhaps say that I have been slow (and you could also be right, damn you!), but just like bread or long leavening pizza, I can assure you that the result is absolutely worth the wait.
NUMBER THREE: THIS BOOK IS NOT JUST A STORY!
Yup! This is not just the story of “Ondevitare”... This is also its first educational project!
And since I doubt you can take my word, since in order to take it you should read more than 98,000 words, since reading a 650-page book at the beginning could be freightening, I would like you to look at the short film that in 12 minutes summarizes it.
If, watching it, you will not feel anything, then close this page and continue your navigation elsewhere; but if that video is able to give birth to something within you, whether it is a tear, an emotion or something even deeper and more indescribable, then I beg you to listen to what you feel and support this project.
Because by donating, you don’t prove to believe solely in a book: you prove to believe in the ideal that lays behind, that is inside this book!
Because by donating, you don’t even prove to believe in me! You prove to believe in you, in what my words... have drawn out of you!
And that, whether you believe it or not, is your instinct that speaks.
And that, whether you believe it or not, is your compass.
And therefore the video that has put you in touch with it, whether you believe it or not, is education.
The author
I'm Kevin Cortella. And no: I'm not a pirate! I am a corsair (that’s very different!). A corsair at the bidding of Her Majesty the Education, the one with the capital “E”, the real one!
The one practiced by vocation, not by profession. The one in which what matters is the intention, not the situation. The one that goes out of the boxes, that is not satisfied. The one moving away from the mainland of what has already been experimented, to continuously explore new horizons.
The one you may have wanted to receive in the past, that perhaps you would like to receive in the present or that perhaps you would like your children to receive in the future.
Updates
In addition to the social channels of "Ondevitare", there is only one way to stay on the crest of the wave and receive all (and I mean all!) the updates during and after the campaign: the "GI-MAIL", the specific newsletter to which you can register from the "News" section of this page.
