At that point I was just beginning to play volleyball.  The year I dropped gymnastics, I joined CYO.  [For those of you unfamiliar with Chicagoland Catholic Schools and their sports, CYO stands for Catholic Youth Organization… it basically means it is a traveling team sponsored by the school you attend.]  In any case, I picked up volleyball pretty quickly and played on a traveling/competitive team from sixth grade through high school graduation.  I was a pretty decent player.  A major blow to my ego happened at the beginning of the season my senior year though.  My coach decided to pull me from the starting line.  She said I wasn’t playing as strong as she was used to seeing me play.  This really came out of left field, because I didn’t feel I was playing any differently than I had under her coaching for two years.  To add insult to injury, I lost my starting spot to a sophomore.

So, here I was, a senior in high school, sitting on the sidelines of varsity volleyball matches, while a some chick who still wore braces and ditzy ribbons in her hair bounced around on MY court.  I was peeved.

Lucky for me the season seemed really short that year.  I spent the rest of my time making art, acting in plays, and becoming increasingly excited about living in Montana for four years.

Tons of snow and one film degree later, I embraced the world in a quest to find the answers.  I guess I am still searching for a lot of them.  But there are a couple things that I have figured out.

1. The people that count are the ones that care and the ones that care aren’t always the ones you expect.
2. San Francisco is nice, but not for me.
3. 42… it’s the answer to life, the universe, and everything (and probably also my wedding date)
4. I don’t actually know Binary, my fiance does… and it just so happens that the date we are looking at for the big day, 101010, is point above.
5. As much as I try to curb the habit, I am addicted to coffee.  The smell, the flavor, the sensation after having had too many cups…
6. I really want to have a self-sustaining home one day (completely off the grid, growing my own food, creating my own [and others’] unique art).

So I guess, in the end, it’s not a big deal that I never made it to the Olympics as a gymnastics contender for a world record or that I lost my starting position on a varsity volleyball team as a senior.  I found my soul mate and I found myself and to me, that’s a great big win!