In my sign-off last week I vowed to never miss another weekend here at Dartmouth. This ideology was put to the test quickly, as I had an interview in New York last Friday. And to make the challenge even harder, my mom was coincidently going to be there for business.
I explained to her that I had a duty to my readers and that if I make a promise, I have to fulfill it. I called her, sang my rendition of Kanye West's "Dear Mama," and got on the 4:30 p.m. Dartmouth Coach back to Hanover.
I've already told you guys how much I lose things. I actually lost my phone for a minute when it fell out of my pocket in a cab. Thank God the guys who found it were cool. They actually took selfies on my phone, no joke.
Anyway, you probably could guess that since I lose things so much, I also forget everything. And on this trip, I was too careless to pack either my Mac or my iPad chargers.
That made for a fun coach ride. No "Wedding Crashers," "Casablanca" or "Love Actually" to watch, so it was just me, my thoughts and my music. Usually an experience I'm a big fan of since I have really cool thoughts. But it was really tough to have any fun feelings because of what was going on in Boston at the time.
The city was on lockdown as suspected marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was still on the loose. I have no direct family living in Boston but I'm an emotional guy, and the fear I had for everyone in the city clouded my capacity to think about anything else.
And the worst part about it was that I couldn't get any updates on the situation. The battery life on my phone was low so I put it on airplane mode, essentially cutting myself off from the world. Needless to say when I got back to campus and heard Tsarnaev was in custody, I was relieved.
If you asked me about marathons about a year ago, I probably wouldn't have had much to say. I would probably have said I would never do one since I have a weak cardiovascular system and hate long-distance running. All of this changed though last summer when I helped out with the Los Angeles Marathon as part of an internship.
No, I will not be running one anytime soon, but the experience taught me more about marathons, and I have deep respect for anyone who has the willpower to do one. The amount of time a marathoner must commit to training, dieting and making lifestyle changes is truly remarkable. So when I first heard about the bombings last Monday, I was not only shocked and saddened, I was also pissed off.
Although the choice of venue for the terrorist attack surely was not a commentary on marathons, it was challenging for me to ignore the disrespect for not only our country and Boston, but also of the runners. CJ Pierce '14, my fraternity brother, ran the Boston Marathon for the first time on Monday and crushed it. He ran a 2:48:10 which CJ said, "would have been a 2:45, if I didn't stop to call my parents to pick me up."
To think that the marathon, which should have been an overwhelming and joyous experience for him, could have been clouded by the bombings was frustrating.
That said, CJ is handling it like the champ that he is and said he is "just happy that Boston is safe. And happy that my parents picked up my call."
Like CJ, Boston has responded to the tragedy in typical American fashion. Watching the Boston crowd sing the national anthem Saturday at the TD Garden before the Boston Bruins game reminded me how strong our country was in the face of 9/11. David Ortiz, Big Papi, was a legend when he yelled over the loud speaker at the Red Sox's first home game since the bombing, "this is our f**king city." And I hope you all saw Neil Diamond's rendition of "Sweet Caroline" during what could be called the new "8th inning stretch." So while the terrorists may have used a sports venue to shake up our country and me on the bus, sports ultimately always keeps us together.
