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March 01, 2008
Moments of Personal Glory
As I was trying to think of what to blog about next, it struck me to write about a few shining moments of my life that, although they may seem not that exciting to all of you, were for me, very memorable.
In chronological order, the first happened when I was about in 7th grade. I was on the volleyball team. So one day, we were playing against another school--don't remember who, but I remember they were better than us. They had bumped the ball over to our side and someone bumped it once, it went to another person who bumped it a second time, but it was a wild bump and the ball was headed waaaaayy out and we were about to lose the point and possession. In a snap decision, I ran over to the ball and called loudly, "MINE!!!" By this time, the ball was already out of the court and headed to the floor. I got under it with my back to the net, bumped it backwards over me and just PRAYED that it would go back into the court and over the net. In fact, I actually stood frozen bent over backwards with my arms pointing straight up and my head back staring at the net. It went over and the other team bumped it a couple times, but lost it on the floor and we had won the point. Next thing I knew, I had the ENTIRE team AND my coach all screaming and patting me on the back, congratulating me for such a great save. I think what made this so memorable is that none of us were particularly all that great at the game, even though we always tried our best. So for any of us to make a save like that was kind of a miracle. I just always smile when I remember that. It's probably one of the things that kept me playing even after college.
The second happened when I was in 10th grade. My math skills were always horrible, probably because it intimidated me so much. Now, if you're a regular Priori2ude.net reader, you might recall me talking about my Trigonometry tutor. There were four big tests that year. On the first, I only managed about a 72%. Not horrible, but I wanted to do better. So Mom got me a tutor who showed up every Saturday and worked with me for about an hour and a half. Oddly, I never even realized I was getting better at it, even though my grades seemed to be getting better. It was only when I got my fourth test back and saw the 94% written on the top. My eyes bulged and I thought, "WHAT?? How is THAT possible??" I think I had to look at it several times to make sure it really said 94%.
The third happened when I was in college, sophomore year. A bunch of the girls were going to Dooley's for drinks and karaoke, which they had recently introduced to the bar. Now I love to sing. But that doesn't mean I'm very good at it. I can hold a tune pretty well in tune, but I'm certainly no American Idol. Mostly, I just sing along in my car to my radio/iPod and try to convince myself I'm ok at it. The girls kept trying to convince me to sing with them and at first, I didn't want to. But someone prodded me enough that I agreed, but only if I could practice for an hour to get the lyrics memorized. We got to the bar and I wanted to wait to see how other people did and so I wouldn't be first. About a half-dozen people got up, sung their song and, like most karaoke singers did pretty horribly. A couple might have even gotten one or two audience members to clap sympathetically. Then I got up. The song started, but I remember my mic wasn't turned up and though I was singing the first couple lines of "Words Get in the Way" by Gloria Estefan, I couldn't hear myself. But after the DJ turned it up, I just closed my eyes while I sung so I wouldn't screw up the words. About half-way through the song, I opened my eyes and to my utter surprise, saw a TON of people gathered around the stage and some were even singing along with me! A few even got up on stage and put their arms around me to sing along! I couldn't believe it! I just kept singing and when the song was over, they all cheered and applauded and patted me on the back! I was stunned! When I sat back down with my friends, they told me everyone had their noses buried in their beer glasses until they heard me. And even my friends were like, "Who's THAT singing? She's pretty good!" Now, again, I don't claim to be any great singer at all, but it must have been a great performance having followed some really awful singers. Nonetheless, I still smile when I think of that moment and what a fun time I had. :-)
Posted by Amy at March 1, 2008 11:43 AM
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