olympics

today is the last day of the 2010 winter olympics and i am about to go into mourning. i love the olympics and these two weeks every two years are my favorite in the sporting world. despite, or maybe because of, my utter lack of athletic ability i love watching sports. i like baseball, hockey and football and spend hours watching espn during the non-olympic times, but nothing compares to watching the olympics.

my love of these games seems to be at complete odds with my favorite sports analysts, though. many are only interested in the hockey games, and look down on nbc for airing what they call the marque events of the games--figure skating and skiing--and sending hockey games to the cable networks. the analysts make it seem that no serious sports fan can like watching the olympic games and that the most important sports are the ones that we are inundated with all the time.

in actuality, that is what makes the olympics so great. when else would i spend saturday night watching bobsledding? or a sunday afternoon watching cross country skiing? the competition is world class, so i know that the events are going to be exciting. the personal stories of athletes give me people to root for. most of these athletes have no real fame or fortune outside of their olympic experience, which puts them at a stark contrast to the over-payed, over-hyped athletes of the national sports leagues.

most of all, though, the teams in the olympics are not split by state or region, but rather country. when patriotism is combined with the sport and the stories there is really nothing better. when an otherwise unknown speedskater performs better than she is expected to, i'm excited by the sport, thrilled for her as a person, and proud that someone from my country could upset the best athletes in the world. the combination of those three things does not happen at any other sports venue.

i will root for the hockey team, but no more than i have rooted for the americans who had historic results in the nordic combined, or the american skiers who lived up to the high expectations set for them, or the american ice dancers--yes the ice dancers--for whom winning a medal was more than they could have thought. for two weeks, i had the opportunity to root for people who live ordinary lives with extraordinary athletic abilities. it is much more fun to root for them than the baseball, basketball, or football athletes that i will never be able to identify with because of their superhuman status. it is 2012 yet?

old soul

one of the biggest things i have learned about myself over the past several years seems to be one of the simplest--what i like to do. i began to notice that what i would ask my friends to do was a bit different from what they would ask me to do. one saturday night in college, instead of finding a party or a bar to go to, i had my two best friends over to make a gingerbread house in our pajamas. another time, a large group of us took a trip to the amusement park six flags. while everyone else was lining up for the roller coasters, i asked them all to ride the antique cars with me. even when i was beginning to hang out with and date my boyfriend, it was a little different than other people. our dates would consist of walking around the neighborhood, or sitting by the river and watching the boats. these days, i love spending saturday nights playing board games.

looking back, one of the best parts of this story is that my friends will totally humor me. they will do the things i want to do and actually have fun doing them. unfortunately, i had a harder time accepting this than they did. many times i felt myself feeling left out as all my friends were off doing something else. they would usually invite me, but i didn't want to do what they were doing. i did, however, want to be hanging out with them. i would also feel like i was crazy. there must be something wrong with me, i would think. why didn't i want to go to that house party with those people i didn't know? isn't that what people my age are supposed to do? instead, i wanted to do the things my parents and their friends wanted to do. or worse yet, i would want to do what everyone's grandparents wanted to do. this was clearly a problem.

recently, though, i've come to terms with this part of myself, and a large part of it is due to one phrase. my fourth grade teacher once told my mom that i was "an old soul." even when i was eight, she could see it. having an old soul seems like a compliment. it seems like something that i have that other people don't. it seems like it is a privilege to have. just as i was starting to embrace this idea of myself, my manager at my job told used the same exact phrase to describe me! if two completely unrelated people use the same phrase about me it must be true.

now i realize that what i have viewed as a problem all these years is actually just evidence of a larger character trait, and this character trait is something that i really like about myself. so if i like that i tend to be mature and composed, i will also like that i enjoy my valentine's day plans involve brunch and playing monopoly all afternoon.