A Full Heart

Tonight, I will go to bed with a full heart.

Not only have I just spent my long weekend at a cottage on Cape Breton with good friends and great skiing. But also, my heart is filled with nostalgic thoughts of what my life looked like four years ago today.

At the time, I explained Students Live as the best experience of my life. Although in the four years since, a lot of major events have occurred; I can still say that Students Live 2010 is at the top of the list. The opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics nearly brought tears to my eyes remembering how I was feeling during the same ceremonies at Vancouver 2010. My excitement was hard, or even impossible to contain. I don't think at the time, however, I understood quite what I was in for.

It is obvious that no Olympics are ever again going to even compare for me. This is a thought that used to upset me. Now, however, I have switched my attitude towards being grateful for that fact that I may just have been part of some of the luckiest kids in the world. To have access to Official Media Centres and VIP passes to Olympic events at 16 years of age is almost unbelievable. To feel so involved in a worldwide event was a dream come true. And even though I haven't followed my dream at the time of going into a career in journalism; I have still found the Students Live experience to be invaluable.

From making friends who I keep in touch with to this very day, to getting 957 views from 10 different countries on a single blog post. From getting to attend a press conference with Alexandre Bilodeau directly after he had become the first Canadian to ever win an Olympic gold medal on home soil, and to interviewing the only Canadian Gold Medalist from the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics. These are the kinds of memories that I will cherish for time to come.

As these memories float through my head tonight, I am feeling an overwhelming sense of joy, and gratitude, and pride. Tonight, I will go to bed with a full heart.