Withdrawal and the Future???

It's all over. London seemed very quiet and contained the last two days of my visit. What do you do when everything you prepared and hoped for has come to an end? Where do you put your energy and excitement when there's no expected event?

The past year has been filled with preparations for this trip, along with school and work, but my excitement and anticipation was building for the sole purpose of being involved in the Olympics. Now it's finished.

There isn't anything else I would have rather done with the last two weeks, and if I was asked to do it again I would not hesitate, but now it's done. The thing I look forward to every two years, Olympics (whether summer or winter), is done and to have been a part of one has been invaluable.

I met other volunteers from all over the world, I made great friends, I saw new things, I learned about sports that I had minimal experience with and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I miss the Olympics, I miss London, and I miss my friends in London. I'm going through withdrawal. Now on the plane ride home I think about life and what's ahead for me. There's no doubt in my mind that I want to have a career in athletic training, that has most definitely not changed and if anything that decision has become more concrete, even if I have to be in school for 5 more years, although unlikely, I will become an athletic trainer.

But what will I do along the way to that goal? The Olympic winter games will take placed in Sochi in 2014. Should I add winter sports to my experience? Will I take time and money to learn to speak Russian in order for this to be possible? It's a good idea and one that I entertain on a daily basis, volunteering has its rewards, but although I need experience in the winter games they do not fall at a

convenient time like the summer games do. Unless I will have graduated from UWM by that time.

I also was fortunate to make a contact who works for the Commonwealth games. These are something I didn't even now existed until I volunteered at the test event. Quite honestly I'm not confident trying to explain it, I understand it to be a mini Olympics that happens halfway through the "off" time for the summer games. But I don't know what sports and countries participate. Anyways, if I were to get the opportunity to have a paid job, through my contact, at these sporting events I would have to take time off and move to where they are taking place, which is Glasgow. I've never been there and I think that

opportunity would be invaluable but then that brings up the topic of school. I will most likely have to take time off of my courses in order to take a job there.

Which brings up another question. If I were to get a job at the Commonwealth games would it be possible for me to add/take a course in Europe that would add to my current and future degrees and allowed me to practice as a physiotherapist in the UK? The UK does not have the career of athletic training, as far as I am aware, but if I would take just one or two courses that allowed me to be a physio

in Europe then what would stop me from taking time off from my courses at Uwm, moving to Glasgow, if I got a job for the Commonwealth games, and take courses there while working? 

So many questions, so many feelings and emotions, and I'm still over water. I haven't even landed in the U.S. yet!!!