First of all, it bothers me that I can say anything was twenty years ago because in my mind I am still 27 (which probably explains some of the dumb things I still think I can do, but that's another post).
This thought came to me because later this week, I will be driving back to North Carolina to prepare my house for tenants. The thought went exactly like this: wow, the last time I was away from NC for this long was when I was in Africa.
I spent most of the summer of 1996 in Swaziland in Southern Africa. 20 years later, I have fond and vivid memories of my time there and I would love to be able to return some day. One of my best (and most surreal) memories is of watching the 1996 Summer Olympics in Swaziland. We were 6 time zones ahead of Atlanta, Georgia, where the games were held. Ironically, Atlanta was only 5 hours from my home in NC, and I was half a world away in Africa.
The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, and as a 9 year-old child, I was living in Marin County, California. My parents took me to see the Olympic torch as it was run through a nearby town, and I watched Mary Lou Retton and her team earn several medals. This was a HUGE deal since I, too, was a gymnast. My sights were instantly set on Barcelona 1992 when I would be the 16 year-old gymnast achieving the same feats.
Of course, less than a year later I would find myself uprooted from my home state and taken to North Carolina (which I hated for the next 4+ years) where there was no gymnastics facility nearby.
It's funny how life comes full circle, and once again I have been uprooted from a home state that I love, and I'm watching the Olympics in what feels, at times, like a foreign land. Side note that during all 3 of those pivotal games, USA women did very well in gymnastics.
