What We Remeber

When I think back on incredible opportunities that I have had my memories are never of the things that I expect. While it was amazing to walk with all the other countries to the opening ceremonies and the experience of a lifetime to race with all these athletes in a foreign country, the details of these times will probably fade from my mind. On the other hand, I will never forget the image of the moon lit Tatra mountains with their white slopes flowing into the pool of light from the stadium and resort. The landscape seemed paralyzed, so still that crystals in the air created a halo around the moon. I wondered why the stars here shown so steadily while, in Jackson, they twinkle like some mechanical device. I will never forget building a snow wall to shield us from the chilly wind as we watched the girls fifteen kilometer race. Not only was it vital to our survival, we had to make sure it was more sturdy and a better wind block then Britta and Kyle’s snow wall. Between the girls laps we would run the fifteen feet over to their fort and jump around yelling “house party” until we were sufficiently warm. More then anything, these seemingly trivial moments are what build great experiences. I don’t mean to discredit the value of the actual event and reason that we were in Slovakia in the first place. It is an accumulation of new and exciting things that lead to these pinnacles of experience. Perhaps these random moments that are burned into my memory where just the times when I could really relax and take in the full scope of where I was and what I was doing.