Saturday, June 21, 2008

ode to michael chang

i've kept journals pretty consistently all my life... well, since about the 3rd grade anyway. right now i'm going thru all my stuff, whittling down what i will take east (not much), what i will store while i'm gone (not much), and what i will give to my friends and goodwill (most of it). i found all the journals i've kept since i was 9 years old, and collected them all together in one place for the first time in a long while! i was just reading thru a random journal and (for some reason) wanted to share a passage that made me laugh so hard i cried. it succinctly sums up my state of being in 1994:

It's so strange how things work. Last year I was so pist when I got my knee surgery because I couldn't do anything, but now this is the best summer of my life. Lara said last year that if something bad happens, good things will come from it. Now I'm running varsity cross country, I went to see the U.S. soccer team play in the World Cup, I went to Korea for a month, and I sat next to Michael Chang in church this morning!!

i had almost forgotten about the michael chang encounter. that very afternoon he was playing against stefan edberg in the finals of the ATP tennis tournament not 15 miles away! i was excited for sooo long after that! and yes, i went to church for a couple years there...

anyway, it feels great to simplify my belongings. "keep it light enough to travel," as the be good tanyas say. its strange to be in the graduate school denouement phase of my life. its exciting and nerveracking to prepare for the next portions of my professional and personal life.
you pass thru places and places pass thru you, but you carry them with you on the soles of your travelin shoes.

the littlest birds, by the be good tanyas:



happy first day of summer!

1 comment:

AirportNoiz said...

You were so excited about Michael Chang, I can remember you telling people about it. Sorry, still trying to remember the shop-class stool!