I miss it

I watched a LOT of the Winter Olympics this year. It's been an amazing Olympics- the US broke the record for the most medals won by a country in any Winter Olympics ever, Vonn/Miller/White/Lysacek/Ohno


and a bunch of athletes we'd never heard of (Holcomb, Spillane/Demong, Wescott, Reutter, etc) all delivered, today's hockey game (though the result wasn't the one I wanted) was one of the best hockey games ever,

and the home country performed amazingly well, making for many medal ceremonies where you heard THOUSANDS singing "O Canada" together.

So I had an absolute blast following the events this year. And got really emotionally involved- right from the get go with the Georgian luger's death, and then later on with Joannie Rochette's heart-wrenching/inspiring skates to take bronze just days after her mom's sudden death.


BUT, despite how much fun I had watching, it was still a really really difficult experience. I just miss skating so much sometimes. And watching skaters I knew compete for two weeks definitely didn't help. Especially watching Mirai- I watched that girl grow up from when she was like 5 or 6, starting out skating. As fellow Japanese-speaking families at Pasadena Ice Skating Center, we got to know each other pretty well over those years. And it all just brought back so many memories from my skating days and remembering how badly I wanted to one day be a Winter Olympian, representing the US. At the time, I was still a Japanese citizen, so it was quite the far-fetched dream. Now, I'm three years into being an American, and absolutely loving my new home country. I SO want to be out there rep-ing the Red, White and Blue, and I'm not. I'm nowhere close. My figure skating days are long gone, I'm no longer an athlete, and it hurts.

But it's also been a great time to remind myself of why I'm beyond grateful of how things have turned out since quitting the sport. In the end, I know beyond doubt that had I stayed in the competitive figure skating world, my spiritual life would be lifeless to mediocre at best. It was because I quit skating that I got to move into an apartment at USC, where I roomed with Josh, an awesome Christian guy from Oregon. And it's because I lived with him, and had time to get involved on campus now that I wasn't skating, that I checked out Christian fellowships with him and found Campus Crusade. And it's because of friends I made in Crusade that I found and ended up joining Alpha Gamma Omega (eventually becoming Recruitment Chair, Pledgemaster, and then 2007 President). And it's through being Pledgemaster that I realized I wouldn't be satisfied unless my career allowed me to invest in people and help them grow closer to God (resulting in dropping my pre-med route). And it's through my involvement in Crusade and AGO that I discovered what it meant to be a MAN of God, and that through God, I had what it took to be one. And it's through my Crusade/AGO friends' encouragement that I went on Summer Project to Tokyo in 2007, and my life was completely changed. And it's because of my time on Project that I even considered ever going down the full-time ministry route, which eventually led to my Intern-ing. And it's through my two years of Inter-ing that I decided to join staff this summer.

On top of that, I wouldn't have met all the amazing people that I have in my life now. Best friends, co-workers, fraternity brothers, sisters in Christ, so many people whom I cannot imagine going through my last 6+ years here without.

It's all been amazing, and so much of it started with that decision to quit skating. So I praise God for leading me to that decision. Talk about Him having a plan and knowing what's best for me, huh?? :)

It's just that... right now,

I miss it.