“I promise the changes have never changed me, no matter how distant we all seem to be. We used to be children and I’ll never forget when we played in our circles but that game’s not over yet”
-from the song Streets in the Rain by the Samples (from the album Seventeen)
I know, I know. You hate when your parents videotape your races. Then they insist on interviewing your teammates. No doubt they force you to raise an index finger and refer to yourself as el numero uno before the race. You roll your eyes. Maybe you do it, maybe you don’t. You feel embarrassed. How can they possibly not understand that their excessive camerawork is annoying, not to mention the antithesis of cool. I can’t answer that. But I can assure you that those tapes will be one of the greatest gifts they will ever give you. Those clips of you running at full steam, brimming with life and bravado, racing your peers, competing, competing and competing. The tapes will be there for you when you need them. Whether it’s 2 years from now or 20, you will revisit to remind yourself of your past and sometimes to remind yourself of your present and future.