Feelin' Lucky

I had a really good day today, even though it was an early one. I was going to wake up at 6:20 this morning to get ready to leave for our Special Olympics volunteering, but my alarm never went off, so I woke up at 7:02 and was out the door by 7:12. I haven't been up that early in a while, but it felt good, and I had a lot of fun refereeing floor hockey for the Special Olympics. It was definitely worth the early awakening. It was really awesome interacting with some of the athletes and just watching them compete. Right when I was leaving for practice at about 2 in the afternoon, I started talking to an older lady and her son after her son waved to me. He was probably about 40 or 50, deaf and couldn't speak, read, or write. But he seemed like he was the happiest person on earth. It was pretty powerful to me. She said when he was born, she thought he was going to be her linebacker son, but he got into an accident at a young age and lost all those abilities. She's taken care of him ever since. It was just a passing conversation, one that really makes me think about how lucky I am, though. Not everyone gets to do what I'm doing: play hockey every day. And not everyone gets to chase their dream like me. I'm lucky to be healthy and to have the family I have to support me. I think it meant a lot to everyone there that we had taken the time to volunteer. All the athletes were eager to talk to us and got wide-eyed when they asked us if we play for the Steelheads. It was a really fun day. It's always good to get out in the community.

And then after that, I got to go to hockey practice: the highlight of my day every day. I think I had a good week of practice this week. I'm just feeling more and more confident, and I think I'm starting to turn the corner. Like Coach said, "It looks like I'm a defenseman who actually knows what he's doing now." I'm scoring goals in practice, making tape-to-tape passes, and starting to have more fun and just play hockey like I can. It's a good feeling. And I hope it continues because this is the time in the season where I have to be at my best. I'm having fun, thinking in the present. I need to keep thinking in the moment because I think sometimes thinking about the future or the past really brings me down, unintentionally, but the extra thinking weighs me down and affects my play.

After practice, my roommate and I came back to the house to eat dinner and play some basketball in the nice weather we have here. It was fun, and then we headed out to the Steelheads game, which is the picture at the top of this post. They're the professional team in the ECHL here in Boise, and that's the rink we get to practice in and have one game a weekend in. It's a pretty amazing facility, and we're lucky to get to use it. The Steelheads games are really fun too; tonight I saw more fans than I've seen there yet in the month and a half I've been here. And the home team had a good showing tonight, winning 5-3. I love going to watch those games because I try to learn while I'm watching, and I think I do. Sometimes I just watch one player on the ice for his whole shift to see how he plays. I think it can really help my game to get to go to Steelheads' games and get to watch players play at such a high level.

Tomorrow, we have a day off, and I'm excited about it. I'm going to go to the gym and then just hang out with some of the guys in the afternoon. Next week is a big week for me. I want to keep playing well, keep having fun, and keep getting better because before I know it, this season will be over. Our games and practices are numbered, and I don't want to look back and regret not working harder when I could have; I want to look back and know that I gave everything to get better and help the team, and I feel like I have done that to this point.