I've been asked by a few people to send this journal entry of mine, read aloud by Charmin at the team banquet, Tuesday, April 15th. It wasn't ever meant for publication, just something i put down in my journal a few years ago. I gavea copy of it to Charmin during some conversation we were having. It was strange. There she was in my room, saying to me exactly what I'd written in my joural just the night before. I printed her a copy. Apparently, she kept it and remembered it, because at the banquet, just minutes before we were going to begin, she asked me if it was all right for her to read it.
Remember - this is not polished at all. My apologies - oh wait, i've been told to stop apologizing in my home page, so i take that back.
Tuesday. April 25, 1995.
...I had some really deep thought about some totally unrelated thing this afternoon. Well, not totally unrelated. It was about teammates, and the strength of that bond, and why the hell it is so strong. I figured it out. Some of what we go through here, physically, mentally, and emotionally, is so painful that I don't think anyone could possibly do it alone. Not because they aren't strong enough, and not because they need the support, although these factors do contribute, but I don't think anyone could go through this thinking that they're doing it for themself. It wouldn't work. It wouldn't be worth it. I couldn't run three miles at seven in the morning and then do a weight workout that made me want to throw up thinking that I was doing it for myself. There has to be something more.
Teammates. Something bigger. Something beyond the pain, and a reward beyond victory, because, although that often seems to be the ultimate goal, it is not the ultimate reward. We do it for eachother, and without eachother, we could never do it. You can't work this hard and go through this much for yourself. So the teammate bond is strong, so strong, because it must be, it has to be the motivating factor, the thing that drives you, pushes you, and finally pulls you through in your time of need, and without it, the bond, there could be no team, because there would be nothing to work for, noone to work for, and no real reward besides hollow and short-lived victory. And the greatest thing of all is the fact that although games and tournaments soon become mere memories, friendships will always be there. The bonds last, when everything else finished, and are carried with us into the rest of our lives, and they are so strong, because we know that not only did we go through so much for our teammates, but that they went through just as much for us, and we know just how much that was.
by Kate Starbird