Let the Game Begin!

I have wondered why I have been so taken with the Olympics this year. I thought it was the DVR - I can watch the events I want and FF through the ones that I don't find interesting. Then I realized the only thing I was skipping was the commercials.

My mother mentioned that I was born in an Olympic year. My dad had surgery a few days before I was born and so with a mother with newborn, a dad recoup-ing from surgery and a house that only had A/C in one room they spent a lot of the time watching the Games. Maybe I absorbed the appreciation for the Olympics during that time. That was 1972 - the year 9 athletes from Israel were kidnapped and killed in Munich.

The first time I truly "left home" was the summer I worked at Prude Ranch in Ft. Davis. That was also an Olympic year. The camp nurse was from Oklahoma and her daughter had trained with gold medalist Shannon Miller. At night we would gather around the TV in the dining hall and watch. Somehow it seemed like a connection with the outside world and made me less homesick.

We got married in 1996. Yep, another Olympic year. The games were in Atlanta. I traveled "home" for my wedding shower. When we got to the motel someone called and told us to turn on the TV - someone had just bombed the Olympics. This was after Oklahoma City but before 9-11 and it was a big deal.

It seems like a lot of milestones in my life I can associate with the Summer Games. So what is it this year? I'm not sure. One thing, is that I just turned 36. I watch these kids and see how they have set goals and worked to achieve them. I realize at this moment I don't even have a goal. The marathon runner from China runs about 750 miles a month - what determination! I long to have a goal and be committed to something.

So maybe 2008, the year that Michael Phelps won more gold medals at an Olympic event than any other athlete ever has, will be the same year that I find my passion and purpose for life.