:: eye of the storm ::


About Me

A 27-year-old PA student who wants to visit all seven continents, write a book, work at a pediatric clinic in Africa, and basically meet as many of the world's challenges as possible.

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current mood:
current mood

Life List

(already accomplished)

Become a PA

Visit all 7 continents

Take a SwimTrek trip

Bike through Western Europe

Raft the Grand Canyon

Improve my Spanish proficiency

Go on safari in Africa

Trace my roots at Ellis Island

Vacation in Hawaii

Work on a hospital ship in a Third World country

Celebrate New Year's in Times Square

Visit all 50 states (29 to go: AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, RI, SD, TX, UT, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY)

See the ruins at Pompeii

Swim in Capri's Blue Grotto

Tour Mt. Vesuvius

Throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain

Tour the Colosseum

Visit the D-Day beaches

See the Mona Lisa

Visit the palace at Versailles

See the Acropolis and Parthenon

See the Egyptian pyramids

Hike the Inca Trail

Walk El Camino Santiago

Take an Alaskan cruise

View the Taj Mahal at sunrise

Hike Table Mountain in South Africa

Climb through the Amazon canopy

Walk at least part of the Great Wall of China

Get laser hair removal

Learn to surf, ski, and snowboard

Learn to drive a stick-shift

Learn to play the piano

Go on a tropical cruise

Ride horseback on the beach

Ride in a hot air balloon

Get tickets to the Olympics

Go to adult Space Camp

Witness a shuttle launch from up close

Build a full-sized snowman

Sew a quilt out of my old race T-shirts

Update and continue my Life Scrapbook

Become the oldest person to ever do the River Run

Live to be a happy, healthy 100 years old - at least!

(unlikely dreams)

donderdag 17 februari 2005

Update: R's 2003 record in the 400 medley relay just got broken during SEC finals tonight... and she's pissed. She and the other three girls in that relay have their names up on the big record board in the O-Dome, next to their time (3:35:87) - but tonight it got broken; the new time is 3:35:22. Ah, well, at least it was the Gators who broke it and not some other team... but then, if it had been another team, the 2003 Gators' names would stay up.

Still, that exemplifies everything I hate about this sport - the whole 'fighting-over-tenths-of-a-second' concept I keep mentioning. I swim on a team because I like it, but also because it's a means to an end - if I want to swim marathons, and eventually the Channel, I need regular training and workouts, and the easiest way to get that is to join a team. But being on a team means you also have to be able to sprint and race and compete against the clock, and I have just never liked that whole concept. A few inches too deep at the start, a fraction of a second too slow on a flip turn, and you're out of it. Is 0.65 of a second (the time by which they broke the record) really enough to prove one group irreversibly better than another? To take their names off the record board, never to be seen by future Gators, and let their hours of blood, sweat, and tears be replaced in the click of a watch? I understand the reasoning, but I still think it's unfair, and I wonder how many records came before theirs - times I never saw, records about which people said the same things I'm saying now, swimmers who are now essentially forgotten, however amazing they were at the time.

Okay, waxing eloquent - time to get ready for bed.

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