Lately, I have been haunted by two very scary words:
THE FUTURE.
Like many of my graduate school friends living in my flat in
London, I’ve worried about where my life will take me in the next few years,
and I’ve looked for ways to escape my fear that I will end up begging for
change outside of a Dunkin’ Donuts back in Boston, with my old classmates,
professors and students taking pity on me with gifts of spare change and duct
tape for my cardboard-box home.
I’m proud to say that the Olympics has proven a great remedy
for healing my worries for the future. After all, for Olympians in London 2012,
their lives are all about the present. Their past years of training no longer
matter, and the time after the games doesn’t matter. What matters is the short
time they have to prove themselves in front of their countrymen and the world.
No pressure or anything.
After soaking up the excitement of the Opening Ceremony in a
pub near Hyde Park last week, I had the opportunity to attend two Olympic beach
volleyball matches today, where I forgot about the future and focused on the
ripped athletes in front of me. I marveled at the fast-paced action on the
volleyball court, where I saw Poland’s first pair of male Olympic volleyball
players beat out Switzerland. I laughed
as a team of dancers who looked like they belonged on Jersey Shore danced
around on the sand during breaks between sets. I cheered as the announcer welcomed
“the guardians of the sand” (the volunteers who raked the sand) onto the court for
a session fondly referred to as “rakey-rakey time.”
All of these little experiences added up to an amazing day. Just
as those athletes I saw today don’t know who is going home with gold, I don’t
know where my future will take me once I return home, but that’s OK.
I’m lucky to be in the present, to be experiencing the
Olympics with my good friends. The future will take care of itself, and, if it
doesn’t, I’ll join the group of Jersey Shore dancers, so don’t judge me.
