Unexpected consequences

The story goes something like this:

In 1986, when they were in Mr Havelaar's English 11 class at Robron Secondary, Mike and Kevin persuaded him to let them do a Super-8 film about skiing on Mt Washington for their final project. It was a huge success, and next year, when they were in his English 12 class, they repeated with an equally well-received slide-show on the same subject.
According to them, they were rather indifferent students, so they, after graduation (at least Mike; I'm not sure about Kevin) rather than heading for university or college, instead went skiing.
Mike subsequently became Mike Douglas, founding member of the "New Canadian Air Force" and   "godfather of freeskiing" (according to the Wikipedia page) a professional skier presently a documentary filmmaker specializing in ski films.  Kevin Fogolin today is a professional forester and principal in Dynamic Avalanche Consulting. Both live in Whistler; both still live to ski; both have, in effect, turned skiing into careers.

There are corrections to this story, but they are minor:  there must have been two English 11 teachers involved, because according to my records only Kevin was in my English 11 class, while both were in my English 12 class. The film was indeed excellent (I saw it again when they were here recently) and they both graduated with a B in English 12. In other words, they both scored well above average.

I wouldn't have known any of this if I hadn't looked it up. If, in the 25 or so intervening years I ever heard mention of either of these men, I certainly didn't connect their names with those of former students.
Then Mike phoned. He had to jog my memory about the film before I had even a vague recollection.  He was doing a film involving Kevin and a helicopter accident in the Coast Range in winter a couple of years ago that he, the pilot, and one other walked away from. Both he and Kevin remembered the film they had made in English 11 fondly: could they come and interview me about it?

I honestly had little relevant to say. At the time a major project was a requirement of my senior English courses; usually these were research essays. And I cannot have been of much help: I didn't use a Super-8 camera myself, although I'd had a few students do film projects before. But I did remember there had been a film, and did I remember Kevin's name and that he had been a really pleasant kid. So I said "sure".

Whether anything comes of that somewhat awkward interview, it was more than interesting to meet these two after so many years, and it struck me that there has to be something of a reflection implicit in their stories.
No one, not even the boys they were at the time, could have projected their career trajectories when they were in high school. The jobs they do today hadn't even been invented yet when they graduated. And even if there had been such careers, there's nothing to suggest two friends from a town as small as Campbell River would have opted for them or could have made the grade. If there was any sign of the determination and work habits it took to get them to accomplish what they have to date, this wasn't evident in school, although they might perhaps have been extrapolated  from the the time they spent on the mountain.
Hindsight is always perfect, and any narrative only makes sense as edited by the teller in retrospect, so when Mike claims his Grade 11 film-making experience was influential, I believe him but don't take any of the credit. His present career is a logical extension of innumerable decisions, coupled with a considerable native talent.
But it is a good thing he and Kevin got the opportunity in Grade 11, and other worthy school objectives or bureaucratic hurdles didn't get in the way.
The considerable resources pushed at secondary career counselling have always struck me as something of an expensive and unrealistic pipe dream. Stories like those of Mike and Kevin don't do anything to change my opinion.