About

I watched the Olympic Torch being carried through Carson City in 2002. At the time I was nine and carrying around dreams of fame, fortune, and then medaling in the Olympics. It didn’t take too long to realize the unlikelihood of this. I had dropped dance and broken my toe in gymnastics and was never a good enough swimmer or runner to make any championships. Instead I continued to follow them on TV, oohing and ahhing over the figure-skaters and fervently wishing I could hold my breath as long as the swimmers.  

My second brush with the Olympics didn’t come until I was 11 and my dad finally took me skiing at Squaw Valley USA. Granted, the Olympics hadn’t been held there since 1964 but the place is still decked out in multi-colored rings and memorabilia. Despite having long given up on the idea of winning any medals, I can’t help but daydream while skiing down Olympic Lady about what it would have been like to have raced down that hill 48 years ago with half the world crowded into a tiny California ski village.  

Then moving to Washington in 9^th grade and having given up sports in favor of music, I discovered that the high school I was supposed to go to the next year had been invited to participate in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra. At first I felt excitement, then disappointment. As lowly freshmen, our only chance of getting a spot was if we had an older sibling already going. Then I was offered the spot of someone who had decided to drop out and I’m still excitedly bouncing around. The chance to go to the Olympics at all is rare, but the chance to be an actual part of them usually only comes once. I look forward to contributing, even in a small way, to world understanding via music.