A world away, friendly faces emerge


Believe it or not, it does seem hard to believe, but this is my final day in Sochi.
It has been a fantastic journey over the last two-plus weeks, but the time has come to bring this adventure to a close.
On my final blog from Sochi, I thought I’d touch on something I noticed here, something that made me realize just how many people there are in the world.
While around the world, I started noticing people that looked a lot like people who I know at home. I know it’s strange, but seemingly every day there was someone that I ran in to that reminded me of someone who I already knew.
On the final flight here, from Moscow to Sochi, the guy sitting next to me with his son looked just like Kingswood boys’ soccer coach Mike Best.
I was at the women’s ski jumping competition and one of the women in the group of American fans looked exactly like my Village Players friend Lisa Rose Penny.
The first time I went into the gym here at the Main Media Center in the coastal cluster, a guy that came in after me completely reminded me of former coworker Jim Shilander.
And the other day, it happened twice, both within the same day.
I was riding the bus up to the extreme sports venue and I looked across the aisle at the girl in the next row and from the side, she looked exactly like my friend Vanessa Nelson.
And later that day, on the way up the gondola toward the Laura Cross Country and Biathlon Center, the girl sitting next to me with her friend looked exactly like my friend Kim Johnson.
There were others too. It hit me that with so many people in the world, that there is likely to be people out there that look a lot like one another and if you go to different places, there’s a good chance you’ll run into someone who reminds you of people you already know.
It also made me realize, that there is a part of me that misses the people at home and the people I usually spend my time with. While I am not thrilled that my time here is over, I do think I am just about ready to come home. It has truly been an extraordinary experience and I can’t be thankful enough to all the people who helped me make this a reality.
Even if I saw some of their twins walking around the sidewalks and venues of the Sochi Olympics.
This is the final post from Sochi. I am heading to the airport in a few hours to get on the plane and eventually make it home at some point on Monday. There will be more updates to this blog as I readjust to driving, covering high school sports, watching television (Survivor starts Wednesday) and figuring out when to sleep.
Thanks to everyone who has followed along on this journey so far. While it’s not completely over, the part of my journey in Sochi is coming to a close and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to be here and share this experience.

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 23, 2014 at 3:23 PM

    I've really enjoyed reading your blog on Sochi. Thank you for sharing your insights. It's nice to feel a local connection to this huge international event happening on the other side of the world.

    ReplyDelete

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