(written late last night, or early this morning depending on how you want to look at it! - 2AM August 2nd, 2012)
After a total of 28 travel hours logged (that is self-calculated on a lack of sleep, sorry if I'm a few off!), we have finally arrived in Kampala at 10:30pm on August 1st. It was quite the journey so far but surprisingly uneventful. After we all arrived, we were greeted by Maurice and Andrew, two FoG guys. We then took the hour long trip to the FoG house but made a quick stop for pizza on the way. I guess I am not quite yet ready to fully assimilate to Ugandan culture just yet! By the time we got back to the house and met everyone it was way past 1am and everyone was pretty tired.
On my third leg of the flight from Amsterdam to Kigali, Rwanda, I watched Rise & Fall: The Jay Demerit Story (I am a sucker for documentaries, especially sports- related ones) about the US national team soccer player and his unbelievable journey to play at the highest level. The film opens with the following quote:
It really resonated with me. I believe strongly that without a dream to strive for , to keep you motivated, to move toward, it is extremely easy to remain stagnant. And that complacency is a slippery slope.
This adventure that I am about to embark on began as a dream. It started out a few years back when I reached out to Kevin Dugan, the founder of FoG, letting him know that I thought that what he was doing was amazing and that I needed to be a part of it. Now, here I am! There were many times early on (and Kevin can attest to this), where I would tell him- "I don't know if this is feasible, I don't know if I can afford this, I don't know if I have time". Well we all know that dreams don't come easy but when you want something bad enough and feel strongly that it is what you are supposed to be doing, it finds a way of coming together and I am certainly glad that it did. This is the beginning of an amazing journey and I cannot wait to see where it takes me.
On that note, if you have not done so already, I strongly suggest you all read The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo. It is one of my favorite books, so much so that I read it again on the plane. It is a great story about following your dreams and I get something new out of it every time I read it. If my endorsement is not enough, Kerri Walsh also is a big fan and even keeps it on her nightstand in the Olympic village. GO USA!!
A number of my friends back home and I play a game where, at the end of the day, we say three things we are grateful for. I'm going to call it "three time", like our own version of tea time. Today my three are my family, the lacrosse community, and sleep!
I'm going to go try and get some of that last one now, although it is currently 2pm in LA. After traveling for 28 hours and wondering where August 1st went all together, hopefully all it takes is my head hitting the pillow!
Night.
Hil
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