This Post Might Make You A Little Jealous

The night before the opening ceremonies feels like Christmas Eve. There's electricity in the air and it keeps me from sleep.

Tonight the Olympic Torch ran through my school. It went from just mediocre to one of the greatest experiences of my life. Literally. It's something I will tell other people's kids someday. Or right now. In true Vancouver fashion it was pouring rain. Not pouring but consistent enough where all of the sudden you end up soaked. I got my free relay flag from coca-cola and decided for the next 2 1/2 weeks I actually love corporate sponsorship. They were also handing out free cokes in sweet 2010 bottles but there was one problem. This math equation: free stuff + students x olympics=mob scene. I couldn't get close to the freebie truck. We were all lined up along the route. The street lights went out and an olympic themed flash mob started up. I must redact my previous post, this was actually super legit. Then came the police cars. And then fire trucks. Followed by 2010 vans and all of the sudden dancing down the street came the runner holding the olympic flame. The crowd was cheering and waving flags. Some people held candles. It was epic and as the flame passed groups of students ran out after it so the street turned into a sea of students running. Then stopping. Running. Then stopping a bit as we followed the torch in the rain down University Boulevard. All of the sudden people started chanting U-B-C U-B-C and all the regrets I ever had about going to this school melted away in the rain. Eventually the RCMP put a stop to our chase, but that alright with me by then. I had experienced a moment that I could hang on to.

I was one of the students that chased the torch in the street and my heart felt so full it almost burst. Here it was, arriving, the culmination of 4 years of work. I wanted to be here ever since 2003 or so. In fact I've wanted to go to the winter olympics since 1994 in Lillehammer. So I worked. And I worked hard, dammit, just to get here. I remember sweating through chemistry class trying desparately to access the science portion of my brain because I knew Grade 11 Chem was a must have to apply for UBC. I remember checking the mail everyday. Nights crying myself to sleep until I got into this "dream" school. The first night here when I bolted my dormroom door for the lack of anything better to do. All of it traces back to that fall of 2005 as the Torino games approached when I went "maybe I could move to Vancouver". A thought became a dream a dream became a trial and in this moment chasing the olympic flame shoulder to shoulder with people I don't even know but who are just as excited as me, well, then the dream became a reality. In this moment, I felt off the charts happy. And for someone like me, that's a big deal.

I went to UCM tonight and during the end of the worship set I sat down in the back and cried. But I couldn't stop smiling. Happy tears. It was because I knew that I'd escaped. High school was hard for me, the road to Vancouver for me was marked with bouts of depression and serious lows. It was this weird feeling of "if I made it here like I wanted, maybe possibly I might be ok. The rest of my life might just be alright". The olympics have always made me feel better about things. They've always been a distraction from things, but a good distraction and for once I am in the epicentre of this earth quake. When I log onto NBColympics.com I see pictures of places I've gone to, places that have been a part of me for 2 1/2 years.

After UCM we all hit up McDonalds for mcflurries. It's something about the olympics that makes me crave McDee's. That corporate sponsorship stuff really works, I drank a coke today too. If this continues by the end of the games I'll open an account at RBC go home and flip on my panasonic TV and then call someone on my samsung phone. Yikes. Going out after UCM was great because, well, I started and sitting around the table watching hockey misplays of the day on TV with my friends was exactly what I needed. The cool thing is not that the olympics are here and I'm going, but that I'm here and the olympics are coming. This is my city. This is my campus. And right now, despite housing issues and tuition increases, I love it.

I should really get some sleep.