Puerto Rico Dreaming
St. Lawrence University
Submitted by Molly Lunn on Thu, 02/09/2012 - 06:43.
By this point senior year, my snow boots are no longer rainproof and my rain boots no longer have soles. Until today's freeze, then, snow boots in the morning meant soggy socks all day. And rain boots at night meant skating, duck-like, across what I thought were puddles. Senior year. You just can’t win.
The damp, cold wind greeting my arrival back to Canton January 4th did not remind me of my snowy freshman and sophomore winters. Neither did the prospect of almost three months of cold wind until March and spring break. So the swim team and I, like true ocean mammals, found a warmer place to swim.
Courtney's masterpiece "sandman" there's not enough snow in Canton to replicate!
We raced distance freestyle in the outdoor Olympic-size pool. We put fins on our feet, paddles on our hands, pull buoys between our knees, snorkels on our heads and tried not to drown. And, by the end, we limped up stairs and avoided handicapped ramps entirely, the pain in our calves from jump roping somehow worse than that in our hamstrings from endless lunges around the pool.
Our glorious tans were worth the aching muscles and green hair once back on campus. For the two weeks until school started, then, my life revolved entirely around St. Lawrence athletics. And looking through my Puerto Rico pictures, wishing we'd never left.
Morning practice, the routine went. Breakfast. Lunch. Nap. Afternoon practice. Dinner. Bedtime. Occasionally I did laundry and a few times sat in the eerily quiet Student Center with a December New York Times.
The weekend before school recommenced I watched four basketball games, three hockey games and a track meet and competed in two swim meets. In between those I looked through more training trip photos and began my internship search on SaintsLink, our fantastic alumni database. By that I mostly mean I thought of going on SaintsLink, and instead took lots of naps. Imagine if I were just an athlete, removing “student” from the equation. I would be a first-rate Saints fan in perpetually great shape with no energy to ever leave my bed!
Ringing the SLU Victory Bell after our women's and men's home win last weekend
I love my classes now that they’ve started—screenwriting, especially, has proved a challenge but a creative release. I was asked to TA a Government class this semester so that’s created some new adventures. I wrote a fun article on shopping local for Valentine’s Day for Friday’s The Hill News, and tonight I attended an English department “soiree,” mingling with professors and other majors and minors over spanakopita, strawberries and literary discussion.
It was more than time for school to begin only three short weeks ago. But the life of a tan, sore, motivated, exhausted athlete discouraged with her best “arroz con pollo, por favor” returned always “and a salad on the side?” was certainly charming for a while.
Goofing off for our team photo
Post new comment