Supergirl

Being quite a comics geek myself, I've always thought that pretty girls in sexy and cool outfits who can pack a mighty punch like Supergirl only exists in the fantasy world. Well, that's till I read about Suzanne Lee while on the flight in The Sun today.

Suzanne Lee is a roving free spirit. In her 21 years she's been a mechanic, a model, a PR agent and now a travelling photographer.... it doesn't seem possible that she's been to 16 countries, served as a team mechanic for Aarows Racing Team, stood in as stuntwoman for Mendam Berahi in Bombay Dramas, hiked through Pakistan's Thar Desert.

You might want to ask, what has this got to do with an education blog? Has Tony's repressed teenage angst been suddenly unleashed? (Well, maybe – the repressed bit. :)) But more excitingly, is how Suzanne has totally took her life by the scruff of her neck and seized the day. Carpe Diem, they say.

Suzanne started off modelling at sweet sixteen (by accident). But her experience at modelling led to a flair and passion for photography with all the big cameras and disproportionately gigantic lenses. She bought her first SLR camera from the proceeds of a beer shoot and off she went on a four months backpacking tour of Europe. And how does she afford all these travelling?

“I travel on a budget. You need a great deal of emotional and mental control to travel alone for long periods of time. Emotional beause you're on your own and you have to be in control of the situation at all times. Mental control comes into play in expenditure, no matter how much you love a souvenir, a budget is a budget.

I also do freelance jobs along the way. When I was in Europe for example, I was an unofficial photographer for the Sauber-Petronas F1 Racing Team.... Now I travel on sponsorship. It's an exchange of services – I take photos and they sponsor me the trip,” she said with a happy grin.

What about her education?

My personal take? With a life as full as hers, formal education can wait. Suzanne was enrolled into a degree for photography programme at a local college but that has since been put in “indefinite hiatus” for she is unsurprisingly learning much much more out there.

While my life has not been without its excitements and adventure, I read with a tinge of regret that the path Suzanne has taken is now beyond me (not unless I decide to ditch my wife and daughter :)). This would have been something which I would have been extremely interested to do, but of course, there are just too many things to do in this short life of ours.

As reported by the Sun, for Suzanne, the turning point in her life came when she became aware of a big, big world out there accompanied by an “undeniable attack of wonderlust”. And she quoted St Augustine, “the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

Yes, its alternative education at its best. I'm certain that there are others like her around, but Suzanne certainly sets a perfect role model for our young ones.