Robin Bowman

Gage Boone, age 17

I was actually born in Columbia, in Bogota. I was adopted when I was four months old… If I was in Columbia right now I would be dead, because I had a blood clot in my brain (that's why I have this scar and everything), and if I had been in Columbia I would have died because I would've been on the streets.

I like that I think about things from all different angles. I won't just jump to conclusions about things. I try not to, just because I've seen what that's done to people and I try to just look for the good and bad in everything. Because I think there's a lot of beauty in ugliness and ugliness in beauty.

My main focus in life is to have an impact on the world, you know? I wanna change things and I want to be heard… I am an artist and I've sort of known since I was really young that I'm going to one day make clothes. I've always been interested in fashion and stuff. But I don't really like the word “fashion” – I think it's kind of cheesy. But I think I'm going to use that as a catalyst to bring other aspects of art and writing and photography and like everything into the broad landscape of things.

Right now, I work on the docks in Maine ‘cause there's a big lobster industry up here and it's good money and it's hard work… I shovel bait and move lobsters around…

9/11 was weird. It was sort of a process of feelings… at first I thought of it kind of as funny in a way. I was like, "Ha ha, look, we got blown up!" And then I wanted to be there and look at New York when there was just no one there. And then as I started to, like, hear and see more of what had actually happened it was horrifying and completely scary. I felt so horrible for all the people...

But after that first week I started to see, in a way, we deserved it, you know? I think that it's kind of funny that people are like, "I don't know where this came from" you know? ‘Cause we've done so much horrible things to other countries and we're not really sincere about our… interactions with other countries. It's more for money and stuff. And then the whole over-patriotism of everything just sort of completely brought me down and gave me like no respect for the way that America dealt with it… There's propaganda everywhere, and in a way I think that it would have been better if the media hadn't covered it as much. In a way that's what Osama bin Laden wanted, you know? To be a superstar and to be infamous completely… It sort of just made me want to move out of the country.

Wilson Boone, age 15

I believe in God to a certain extent… I believe in evolution, but I believe that something had to start it. People believe that evolution began with the explosion of dust. But where'd the dust come from, I guess?

I respect my brother… He’s a really cool kid and gets along with everybody… doesn’t have problems… If you don’t have family than you don't really have anything. I mean, you could have money and power or whatever, but if you have no family and no one to be around, then you're just going to be lonely. It's not really worth it.

I would be a professional snowboarder if I could, but I doubt that's going to happen. In reality I have no idea. I don't know what I'm gonna be. I haven't really thought about it. Just trying to live in the moment.