1991: I was born. Pretty good day, or so I hear.
1992: Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal in ladies' figure skating. (It's destiny, I tell you.)
1994: Torvill and Dean regained their amateur status, making them eligible to compete again, and won the bronze medal in ice dancing. It may not've been Bolero, but it was still legendary.
1998: On the eve of my birthday, Tara Lipinski beat Michelle Kwan for the gold medal in ladies' figure skating (and this is my first Olympic memory!). On the day of my birthday, Christine Witty won bronze in the long track speed skating 1000m.
2002: My fellow Long Island girl Sarah Hughes won gold in ladies' figure skating! (I was in fifth grade and stayed up way past my bedtime to watch with my cousin Molly. Sarah won at around midnight and we legitimately woke up the rest of my house with our joyous shrieking and dancing and throwing pillows in the air. Oops?)
2006: Total baller Shani Davis won silver in the long track speed skating 1500m, and Chad Hedrick took bronze.
2010: On the eve of my birthday, Apolo Ohno became the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time. Can I get a WOOP WOOP?! And on the day of my birthday, Meryl Davis and Charlie White killed it in their original dance, and my girl Jen Rodriguez skated in the long track 1500m.
In the last few years, as I've began to take control over the direction of my life, I've managed to work Olympic-y things into my birthday even in non-Winter Olympic years.
2011: I got to interview Amy Deem about her appointment as Team USA's head women's track coach for London 2012. And it was awesome!
2012: Worked a shift at London 2012 Ceremonies. And it was awesome!
Then 2013 came, and my birthday was a total anticlimax. I had a cold, and was busy literally from 9 a.m. until midnight. It was so utterly not fun. But 2014 is going to make up for that a thousandfold. Why, you ask?
Because I'll be spending the day working (what I'm assuming will be) crazy hours out of this building:
I can't believe I can finally say this, but I'm an employee of the United States Olympic Committee! Through the end of May, I'll be working as a content assistant in the digital media department. So basically, dream job status! (Minus the whole "temporary" thing, but look, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.)
This, of course, means that I'm in some scary uncharted territory. I started this blog with getting a job at the USOC as my goal, and now... I've achieved that goal. What the heck?! I guess that means I need to make a disclaimer and be all professional, or something?
*This blog is entirely unaffiliated with the United States Olympic Committee. All opinions and feels are entirely my own. Future content will probably contain less Olympic-y stuff because, heck, even I need some variety in my life (and because I don't want to risk violating my employer's social media policy and getting fired).*
That covers my bases, right?
In a week from today, I'll be moving into my new digs; a room in an apartment with one of my intern friends' supervisors as my roommate. The Colorado Springs world and the Olympic movement is freakishly small, my friends. My dad and I get to pile everything back into Buzz and reverse our cross-country road trip almost exactly a month after the first one. And all of this will be right after shedding my safety blankets with a new haircut and a new pair of glasses. This has all happened incredibly fast and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't overwhelmed.
But holy uncontainable excitement, Batman! My first job without "intern" attached to the title, and it's exactly what I want to be doing. Again, temporary, but still. Wow. Who the heck does that happen to? Sheesh.
Funemployment, we've had our day. Time to start livin' the dream!
Congrats!!!
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