Just been reading about Barbara kendall & Teddy Huang's adventures. To say that I was fuelled and fired up is an understatement. I'm stoked juz reading and imagining. I would usually be tired out after a hard week's at work. Somehow, passion and energy can be so easily bounced off & rubbed off, from one shoulder to the next. Words indeed allow one to climb into one's skin & walk around in it. Not to mention the feeling of overwhelming excitement, as if I'm sailing with them & hovering in spirit-form. My heart is indeed overwhelmed. I had longed to be able to post lotsa race reports like barb can. However, it's not always easy when I have only such limited race experience, where the no. of overseas races can be counted easily between my 2 hands. It would seem almost embarrassing to write anything about my training sessions or post my innermost thoughts. Yet, it came to my mind that no one's too insignificant to be ignored, no dream too small, no question too dumb, no effort too little. Went to work today with a heart full of joy and expectations. My heart was basically overflowing with the knowing that "I can really do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me". This reminds me of an ad that I saw, "What will you do if you know that you cannot possibly fail in?" I automatically started thinking of the things I want to do, or think I CAN do. There are so many things to look forward to if one tries to find it. I looked forward to luncheon with one of my windsurfing gals, Wanqi. We had a simple lunchy, laffing and poring over the fotos that I just collected. My prized possessions from the Sydney Olympics. I was basically trigger-happy over 13 rolls of films. Blew up classic shots of Olympic windsurfers to decorate my room and office. Pictures tell a million words, at least, words that would be incapable of explaining what I felt in those times. My best moment, as I reminisce, was during the Prize-Giving Ceremony, held in front of the beautiful Opera House at Circular Quay. As the National anthems played, the flags climbed steadily up the poles, the winners on the podium awe-struck and the audience inundated in the reality of it, I felt that THIS is indeed, THE one moment in time. THIS is what the Olympics is all about. THIS is more than an everlasting memory ingrained in me. Notwithstanding the Olympic hype and celebration, the impact of the meaning of the Games hit me more than a 100 kt typhoon. The winners must be feeling a myriad of feelings: joy indescribable, numbness, relief and unbelief. Yet others pained by a dream unfulfilled, others elated beyond description. It must have been more than a combination of these feelings. Years of physical abuse, commitment, sacrifice, effort, concentration and work cannot be narrowed to a single feeling. It must have been more than this. It is a sacred time for the winners to celebrate, with millions others, how their sweat & tears translate into such a glorious moment. It is a time to celebrate why they raced, who they raced for and who they are. It is too easy to be there and cheer along...and dismiss the non-medallists off as purely non-medallists, few know the sacrifices they went through to be where they are, and the pain they endured to pursue their passion & dream. Few heard their cries of hopelessness and fear and few dried their tears. Probably no one has felt their most intense pain gnawing on the inside of them as they feel the medal slipping by, and dreams remaining elusive.