The Will to Win

“The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” – Baron deCoubertin

Well, kids, the Sea Olympics have come and gone.

8 seas:

·      Adriatic Sea, Arabian Sea, Baltic Sea, Bering Sea Caribbean Sea Sea-lebrities Yellow Sea, Red Sea

 25 events:

·      Musical chairs, concentration, minute to win it, frozen t shirt, ship-wide relay, limbo, knockout, volleyball, great water pour, ping pong tournament, synchronized swimming, dodgeball, wet suit relay, charades, tug of war, jeopardy, chess, parachute egg, pull ups, random relays, short film contest, hula hoop circle, water balloon toss, cheer, and lip sync (guess which one I did)

 1 victor:

·      My sea, the Caribbean Sea

Okay… so we got second place.

What is that thing we used to say? First is the worst, second is the best?

Yep. I’m rolling with it.

But that is only because the Arabian sea had eight of their guys perform a remake of Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda…NO ONE could compete with that.

**added

Pure gold, right?

It was a fun filled day (at least for me), but that is not a widespread thought. So many of my comrades experienced a great deal of anxiety and injustice, if you will.

I won’t get into the gory details of it, because just thinking about it brings up weird feelings. Some folks just took things a little too seriously.

And that’s why I chose lip synch…can’t be too competitive in that. You just have to be entertaining.

I’ve lived my whole life for that.

OTHER THAN THAT. I had a blast. It was like being a camp counselor for a day…without responsibility. On a ship. With 600 people my age. What does that look like, you ask?

It looks like fun- wrapped in school spirit, covered in paint, running around, playing, singing, and dancing for a day.

I could compare this experience to the Holi festival of colors. It didn’t matter if you knew the person you were rubbing up against to melt a frozen shirt, or if you painted a stranger’s face/arms/legs- it was a day of fun.

And a day to let your freak flag fly.

By that, I simply mean acting crazy (hence the reference to camp counseling)

So what exactly is the will to win?

It doesn’t mean you did the most pull ups or have the highest number of points in the final tally-

You know you’ve won if you don’t have a voice the next day, you met even more new people (how many more can there possibly be??), and your team still has an ice cream party despite coming in 2^nd.

And if my “will to win” mindset gets me ice cream- I think I won.

Things I love about today:

1. The fact that my sea’s color is green. Because most of my clothes are green

2. ice cream (I resist buying it on the ship- but this was free)

3. Good music and the people that play it