#94 - Wakeboard again

I suppose this isn't "new."  I didn't even try it anywhere new nor do anything new.

I did plan to find somewhere new to wakeboard, like here in California, but nope.

I just assumed it would be somewhere new because I wasn't going to camp this year, the one place I can just wakeboard if I feel like wakeboarding.

But then...

This summer was crazy stressful.  I was back coordinating aquatics 40 hours a week and with much less control than the previous 7 years I coordinated aquatics.  Plus, I never wanted to coordinate aquatics in the first place.  Nor teach swimming.  Nor lifeguard.  Yet I did so for around 12 years.  And now I had left it for good to go get my PhD... and yet found myself back in aquatics to help pay my living expenses this summer.

I was also struggling with some personal things that I couldn't even quite identify or articulate.

One night I was up late chatting with Grace about why I was having such a rough time.  She asked me what would make me happy.  The voice in my head immediately answered "camp."  I thought of a few other things but that's the one thing that was not only in my past but always in my future.  The problem was that I wasn't going to camp this year.  I teared up at the thought.

The next morning my mom called.  Early.  Too early.  At first I was going to "dismiss" the call and call her later.  But then I worried that she knew exactly how early it was for me and that it was important.  It was.

She called to offer to get me to camp.  She'd use her frequent flyer miles and they'd pay for me to go.  I felt an immediate relief.  I told her I had to check my schedule and flights.

I then had a rough day after a job interview for a job that wouldn't work because it was temporary but full-time, which I couldn't do.  I called my mom to tell her I would go to camp, right after class on Tuesday night.  She didn't realize I had class until Tuesday night.  She said it didn't make much sense to do that... to just go Wednesday through Saturday.  I felt heartbroken.

I then talked to my parents later and we decided to explore it.  We found a red eye on Tuesday.  I booked it knowing that this very intense (time, effort, energy, emotion, cognitive, interpersonal, all of it) class ended at 9pm and we were supposed to leave 30-60 minutes after the last 3 classes in case we ran long.  The flight they booked was at 10:50pm.

I talked to my professor the first day of class about this pull I was feeling.  He agreed it was the right decision and gave me permission to leave at 9:15pm the last night.

This isn't the space to discuss the class but it was incredibly meaningful and powerful.  I am so impressed and inspired by my classmates, our professor, and our teaching assistant.  I was so moved at what was shared that I didn't leave class until closer to 9:45pm and had trouble sleeping on my red eye to Atlanta followed by a flight to Albany because I was processing everything that happened the last night of class.

Back to this story, I got out of class at 9:45pm and my dear work friend Brian actually waited on campus for me until I called him even though I told him that I needed a ride at 9:15pm.  He got me to the airport just in time for me to board.

I flew to camp, reunited with family and friends and friend family / family friends.  I lived out my camp nightmare and it was really a dream.  I am in love with that place and have been my whole life.

Again, back to this story, I wakeboarded on Thursday morning... after getting up at 6:45am (Eastern.  3:45am Pacific) to canoe for a swim race that didn't actually happen until 8:45am.  I was tired and I hadn't wakeboarded since I had last been at camp in 2010.

It was a dream.  I got up right away and stayed up almost the entire time, including while practicing jumping.  I only fell once when my back and arms were exhausted from gripping for 10 minutes or so, using muscles in ways they haven't been used in 3 years.  I hit a bump, lost my grip, and just sunk easily into the water.  We all agreed a little float would be nice for a few minutes.  I then tried a few more jumps and made it all the way back to the dock with the top of my head still dry.

So thank you to Grace for helping me realize where I needed to be, Mom & Dad for actually getting me there, Brian for literally getting me there, and Zachary for giving me permission to go (though there are probably other experiences I had that mattered more in relation to class than this).  I really needed this this year.  So much that I forgive my mom for missing taking a picture even though she was waiting right there on the beach.