Closing Ceremony

I left London on Friday, August 10th and had another two weeks to travel through Europe.

I was lucky enough to visit Belgium and meet Arnaud and Maykel who were awesome hosts while I travelled around Brussels, to Ghent and did two dives at the world’s deepest pool, Nemo33 (where I actually watched the Olympics while scuba diving at 30 feet!).

I then went and visited Strasbourg, where I lived one year during university.  Tarte flambées, Kronenbourg, biking up the Robertsau and a wicked busker festival were all part of the fun.

The final stop was Paris.  I toured a chocolate museum, the Arc de Triomphe, the Stade de France, saw two game shows being taped in one day (a new personal best!) and tried out for a third (which, if luck is on my side, will lead to another blog).

I’ve been home a week and a half now and am really having the time to reflect on what happened not six weeks ago.  I achieved a life dream and attended the Olympics.  I saw eleven different events.  I met five wonderful London 2012 Canadian athletes – all of whom, I must note, went on to win medals – and got see two Canadian medals won in person.  It’s hard to pick a highlight, although seeing the Canadian women win bronze has special significance.

Thank you to everyone who made this dream possible.  I feel so lucky to have such supportive family and friends who encourage me at all time to chase the wildest things in the world and there is such a rush when I get to participate in them. This will not be forgotten any time soon.

I’m not going to overload this with too many inspirational messages, but I’d like to share a couple of thoughts which I feel are appropriate to finish up this blog with.

First – one of my favourite quotes is “Ours is not to reason why.  Ours is just to do or die”, which is Alfred Lord Tennyson from “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.  I find it resonates with my life.  I have always gone out and tried things, especially new things.  You never know if you don’t try.

Second – I try to live my life by the thought that if “opportunity knocks, open the door”.  I often have people question me as to “how do you get to do all these crazy things?”.  In fact I think these crazy things are open to everyone, you just have to go out and chase them.  While you don’t have to break laws or hurt others to do it, make sure you do things that make you happy.  It really helps.

Finally – always drop your loose change in “the karma box” (as I call it) – when you’re leaving the restaurant, the fast food joint, the supermarket, wherever.  Those really add up.

Oh, by the way, if you want to check out the interview I did, it’s at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzkeLxZDTMg&feature=youtu.be

I hope that in the future I can bring you more exciting travel adventures.  I’ve already started planning for Rio 2016…

Cheers, and thank you for reading,

Vick.