Memoirs of a Wanna Be: Intro and Chapter 1

Hello world,

So you picked up my book, and you’re probably wondering what this shiz is gunna be all about.  Memoirs of a wanna be, huh? Yep, that’s right, I was a wanna be, maybe still am. But something amazing happened along the way of wanting to “be”. So let me start by telling you a little bit about the journey.

This is not a book about the little white girl that could. This is not an underdog story, or how against all odds I made my dreams come true. This is the true story of someone who went for her dreams, and didn’t achieve them.

All guts, no glory. I don’t believe the journey is only worth it if you accomplish what you set out to do. That if you don’t achieve your dream you are a failure.

Read on, this is not a melancholy memoir.

The Leap

One day, in 2010 I saw my chance. The Vancouver Winter Olympic games were on TV in February of my senior year of high school, track and field pre-season practices were right around the corner.

I turned on the television one Saturday afternoon and didn't expect to find anything interesting on. All the popular events of the Olympic games were on at prime time. Yet, I watched as a blur of pink slid across the screen on her belly.

Noelle Pikus-Pace of the USA Bobsled and Skeleton team had just crossed the finish line in her infamous pink spandex speedsuit.

How was this weird sport that I’ve never heard of in the Olympics? Skeleton? What type of skills did a sport that involved going 90mph face first, in nothing but spandex in freezing temperatures involve besides some level of insanity?\

I huffed. If a princess in a pink speed suit could do that, so could I. (Much respect of the woman, the myth, the legend, Noelle Pikus Pace. I would eventually meet her in person and she would walk away from Sochi four years later with a silver medal.)

Oh how ignorant I was, yet this is how my journey began.

Right then and there I googled “How to join the skeleton team”. “How to get into skeleton”. Needless to say, I didn’t find much. I wasn't shocked, I had never heard of skeleton before 5 minutes ago.

Eventually though, I wound up on the US Bobsled and Skeleton teams website, found the recruitment tab, and submitted an application. I didn’t put much thought into it my submission. I figured there was one in a million chance that I got a note back, but what the hell. What did I have to lose?

My mom told a reporter later that it all started for me when I googled “how to go to the Olympics”. While this isn't exactly true, the premise is. It’s true that I only wanted to try out for the Skeleton team because I wanted to go to the Olympics. I honestly can’t say that I was genuinely interested in the sport. I thought I would be good at it...does that count? I’m not sure.

Later on I denied it because I wanted to be seen as being passionate about the sport. Not some fraud who saw it as only a means to an end.

Looking back on it now, I realize there was a little bit more to the decision. I was looking for a way out of the pigeonhole that I found myself in. My athlete identity would probably die in college, and then...who was I?