Spring Break
Even Beavers fly
Olivia Vivian
Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: Sports
When I was younger, I loved traveling. I would count down the days and pack my suitcase two weeks before the departure date. But now that I'm older and I no longer qualify for the kids' activity packs, traveling has become more of a burden compared to the adventure it used to be.
And man did I have some adventures. I used to travel with the state and national team all the time. When you're young and have a bunch of your closest friends with you, even a packet of nuts can turn into a very amusing game.
One flight, a teammate and I once asked for 10 packets of nuts/pretzels and then had a competition on how many we could throw into the air and catch in our mouths. The catch was we couldn't chew the ones that had already landed, so we kept going until it became impossible to close our mouths. That was all fun and games until we opened one packet and found a dead fly. That wasn't the worst part; the gross part was that we had already eaten half the contents of the packet before we discovered it!
That's just one of many flying memories I have stored away. The most embarrassing one happened a year ago. I was with the national team and we were flying here to America for a gymnastics meet. I was the oldest one on the team and had traveled internationally many times before.
I got to the airport and the youngest member on the team jokingly asked me "Olivia, did you remember your passport?" I don't think I have to tell you my answer! It's 5 a.m., the flight leaves in 30 minutes and I live 40 minutes from the airport. I'll tell you now; this story didn't have a fairy tale ending. The team left and I sat at the airport, drowning in my own stupidity.
Luckily I had some pretty great program managers who were able to book me onto the same flight just a day later. I will never live that one down! Even now, in a new country with a new team, I still get harassed about it!
The worst part about flying is that you seem to spend more time waiting for your flight than what you do in the air! Yesterday we left Corvallis at 7 a.m. and arrived at our hotel in Missouri at 7 p.m. Out of those 12 hours, we only spent five hours up in the air! The other time was spent on bus rides, in airport security and waiting around for our flight to board.
But that's life, and I'm lucky to have a team that keeps me entertained through those long, boring hours. The best part of traveling is when we arrive at our hotel. Every time we go away, we stay in a room with a different person. It's like a gum ball machine where you never know what color you will get until it starts circling down the spiral slide. And I'm a person who likes all the colors, so it's always a bonus no matter what teammate I get.
Although this aspect of traveling feels like a vacation, we are here strictly on business. So as you read this, we will be physically and mentally preparing ourselves to compete for OSU. Even though it's not Gill Coliseum, we walk into every arena pretending that it is and that we own the place. And when 12 hours have just been spent traveling, you can bet that we will pull out some big bucks to own it!
Olivia Vivian, OSU gymnastics
sports@dailybarometer.com
And man did I have some adventures. I used to travel with the state and national team all the time. When you're young and have a bunch of your closest friends with you, even a packet of nuts can turn into a very amusing game.
One flight, a teammate and I once asked for 10 packets of nuts/pretzels and then had a competition on how many we could throw into the air and catch in our mouths. The catch was we couldn't chew the ones that had already landed, so we kept going until it became impossible to close our mouths. That was all fun and games until we opened one packet and found a dead fly. That wasn't the worst part; the gross part was that we had already eaten half the contents of the packet before we discovered it!
That's just one of many flying memories I have stored away. The most embarrassing one happened a year ago. I was with the national team and we were flying here to America for a gymnastics meet. I was the oldest one on the team and had traveled internationally many times before.
I got to the airport and the youngest member on the team jokingly asked me "Olivia, did you remember your passport?" I don't think I have to tell you my answer! It's 5 a.m., the flight leaves in 30 minutes and I live 40 minutes from the airport. I'll tell you now; this story didn't have a fairy tale ending. The team left and I sat at the airport, drowning in my own stupidity.
Luckily I had some pretty great program managers who were able to book me onto the same flight just a day later. I will never live that one down! Even now, in a new country with a new team, I still get harassed about it!
The worst part about flying is that you seem to spend more time waiting for your flight than what you do in the air! Yesterday we left Corvallis at 7 a.m. and arrived at our hotel in Missouri at 7 p.m. Out of those 12 hours, we only spent five hours up in the air! The other time was spent on bus rides, in airport security and waiting around for our flight to board.
But that's life, and I'm lucky to have a team that keeps me entertained through those long, boring hours. The best part of traveling is when we arrive at our hotel. Every time we go away, we stay in a room with a different person. It's like a gum ball machine where you never know what color you will get until it starts circling down the spiral slide. And I'm a person who likes all the colors, so it's always a bonus no matter what teammate I get.
Although this aspect of traveling feels like a vacation, we are here strictly on business. So as you read this, we will be physically and mentally preparing ourselves to compete for OSU. Even though it's not Gill Coliseum, we walk into every arena pretending that it is and that we own the place. And when 12 hours have just been spent traveling, you can bet that we will pull out some big bucks to own it!
Olivia Vivian, OSU gymnastics
sports@dailybarometer.com
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