Originally published on April 2, 2010 on My Life Is Like A Song
My Olympic Experience
In the summer of 1976 when Montreal hosted the Olympic Games, I remember hosting our neighbourhood Olympics where we would have various races and gymnastics events with the winner getting to stand on the podium to receive the home-made medals.
As the years passed, and my athletic ability didn't warrant a trip as an athlete, I dreamed of attending the Olympic Games.
I remember when Brian Orser walked into the Opening Ceremonies as flagbearer at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988. I will never forget that emotional moment. I always thought that I wanted to experience the Canadian team enter an Opening Ceremonies at home.
I thought I would have my chance when Toronto bid for the 1996 Games but that was not to be.
I was online the first day tickets went on sale for the Vancouver Olympics, but I realized that the cost of getting my family to attend with everything being even more expensive than normal was not a possibility for us. The dream seemed to die.
I consoled myself with a back-up dream. I thought that perhaps a more realistic goal would be to run in the torch relay. At least I wouldn't have to travel for that and there wouldn't be extravagant costs involved. Unfortunately, I was not chosen and I realized that this was an even more difficult dream to fulfill. I thought that my dream of being involved with the Vancouver Olympics was over.
At this point, I attended a workshop presented by Mothers on Fire and I was reminded that my dream really was to attend the Games, which was still a possibility. The Games hadn't happened yet.
I read a book at about the same time that had a quote that stuck with me.
Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.
As the torch relay began, I was so sad. I couldn't get myself excited about the relay starting when the Olympics were in my country and I didn't have plans to be there. This mood would only last a couple of days though. My friends who live in Victoria called me so I could hear first hand the torch relay pass in their neighbourhood. It was such perfect timing as it completely got me excited about the Olympics. A few days later, a neighbour came home after running in the Torch Relay on Vancouver Island. Knowing how much I love the Olympics, he lent me the torch he ran with. My family and I all took turns getting our photo taken holding it.
This really fueled my desire to make my dream happen. As a family, we couldn't justify going, but could I go alone? Was this possible? My husband was completely supportive of that idea.
Every time it seemed like it couldn't work, I thought, it's just a wall.
Tickets went on sale for Phase 3 two weeks later, but the website crashed. I clicked refresh for over four hours in the hopes that it would get fixed, but they announced that the sale was postponed until the following Saturday. I thought, it's just a wall.
The next week, I spent four and a half hours refreshing two computer screens and redialing the telephone. I finally got over the wall. There weren't many choices left, but my number one choice, the Opening Ceremonies was still available. I bought one ticket! The only other tickets for the first few days were preliminary women's hockey tickets. I thought perhaps I would manage to get a ticket for a more meaningful event for me. At least I hoped so.
Finding accommodations in Vancouver seemed like an impossible task. Another wall!! My friends from Victoria convinced me that it would be easy to get to Vancouver, so I booked my flight to Victoria.
A few weeks later, a friend sold me a ticket to see the Men's Moguls which was all her family was able to secure, so they decided not to make the trip for one event. This was the only ticket offered to me by anyone, and it happened to be two days after the Opening Ceremonies.
It turns out that the commute from Victoria is not THAT easy and would involve a possible four hour commute one way. No problem, it's just a wall. Getting to Cypress Mountain for the Moguls event meant adding an hour to my commute. It's just a wall.
My husband was away on a rare business trip for a few days before my departure. His trip overlapped with my first 24 hours away. Child and dog care became another wall to overcome.
Every time I came up against an obstacle, I did some research and found ways to overcome them.
Two months later, I was at the Olympic Games having the experience of a lifetime. The effort it took to get there was so worth it. Everything worked out even better than I could have dreamed. My seat for the Opening Ceremonies was in the section right beside where the athletes entered the stadium. I was less than one hundred feet from Team Canada as they entered at our home Olympic Games!! Unreal!!
Before the Olympic Games began, the media focused on "Own the Podium". All I dreamed of was that Canada would win ONE gold medal. I didn't want Canada to still be known as the only host country to never win a gold medal on home soil. Being present at the Men's Moguls when Alexandre Bilodeau accomplished that feat was unbelievable for me.
So many things happened to make my experience perfect that I just thought it was just meant to be.
I only did the four hour commute once taking the 35 minute sea plane commute the other times. My friends found me a hotel room across the street from the Olympic cauldron for after the Moguls event so I was able to completely soak in the atmosphere after our first gold medal and spend an extra day in Vancouver the next day.
Looking back at my experience, I can't imagine having missed out on my Olympic experience.
It would have been so easy for me to say, it's too expensive. It would have been easy to say that staying in Victoria and sometimes having a 4 hour bus/ferry/bus commute wasn't worth the effort. It would have been easy to say that going there by myself was too scary or selfish. It would have been easy to say that I should stay home with my children and my dog.
It would have been easy to say, maybe next time. But one day, I may wake up and realize that I missed my chance. I didn't want to regret not going.
Although I came up against walls in my attempt at reaching my dream, I learned that if you really want something, sometimes we can climb those walls; sometimes we can go under them, around them or even go through them to reach our goals. It all depends on how badly we want to reach them.
Written by Suzanne Sewell
www.mylifeislikeasong.blogspot.com
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