It stopped me, because I realized I'd actually achieved that this afternoon. There was that feeling of untethered happiness in a hot, sun-filled car singing at the top of your lungs with your teammates. I'm miming a drum solo and laughing and the feeling that we won today is still with me, and this is my life, and I have papers to write and a television show to get to, but none of that matters because right now, I'm loving my life as I live it.
Because my life is crazy. Today, I had a race at the very same place I'd watched Claire race for the first time last year. You know, this one. Sitting there, watching, I had absolutely no clue I'd be here rowing a year later.
Rowing down to the start, we suddenly heard a scraping on the bottom and jolted to a complete stop. A little panic. We were in the middle of the river, STUCK on a raised bank of sand. "Get out of the boat," said our coxswain. WHAT?
And a moment later, we're standing thigh deep in the freezing water, hands grasping the boat, and straining against a current, pushing the boat off. One by one, we got back in, a little dazed by what had just happened. Then we kept warming up.
The race. Binghamton's second varsity boat.
Lined up, ready to go.
We're jumped off the start. Always. DAMN it.
Our coxswain's screaming. We've never had her before. I'm not sure I understand what she's saying, but I'm pulling.
We're walking them. Seat by seat. Lined up. Fighting side by side.
The 1000 mark. There's our team on the bank. They begin to cheer.
A rush of adrenaline. We make our move, pulling a boat length ahead.
The coxswain's yelling more.
It's the boat ten. We're pulling for each other.
ONE for Jillian. TWO for Maddy, THREE for Dakota, FOUR for Regina, FIVE for Abby, SIX for Sara, SEVEN for Lizzie, EIGHT for Danielle, ONE for the Kearing, ONE FOR THE BOMBERS.
And by pulling together, making our comeback, and never giving up, we got one for the Bombers.
One win.
