The Olympics... and beyond

Korea is getting close and the schedule is starting to take shape a bit more. With two weeks to go until I fly out as I write this, I worked out my tentative schedule for the two weeks I will be in PyeongChang. I printed out the schedule for the games and went to work deciding what and where I needed to be on certain days. The first thing I did was look for events featuring local athletes. Conway's Sean Doherty will be in biathlon events so I put those on the schedule, not knowing yet which of the events he will be competing in. I also heard from a Gilford resident who noted her daughter-in-law, Emily Dreissigacker, is also competing in biathlon in Pyeongchang, so I put a couple of the women's races on my schedule as well. Sarah Hendrickson, who has family in Plymouth (her parents skied for Plymouth High), is one of the US ski jumpers, so I put the women's competition on the schedule. New Hampton School graduate Annalisa Drew will be competing in the freestyle skiing hal...

One month from this moment, assuming all goes as planned over that next month, I will be preparing to board a plane at Boston's Logan Airport on the way to Toronto and continuing on to Seoul, South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics. This is both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time, but I'd say the excitement has the edge, at least in my head right now. Before I left for Russia four years ago, there was a lot of talk about the dangers that the region posed to people, particularly from the United States. That trip turned out to be the trip of a lifetime and something that I will always look back on fondly. Obviously, the state of the Korean Peninsula has certainly been interesting as of late and part of me has a little apprehension about making the trip, considering the dangers that could lurk around every corner. But I've found that the Olympics have done a good job of making sure we are as secure as possible and for that, I am grateful. As I tell people when th...