Yes, I had grown up going to church with my family, done all the good-church-girl things. Yes, I started writing “Christian” poetry at age 14, which had been published multiple times. But no, I didn’t believe in God. Not until age 16, anyway. Even then, I had no idea what it meant to be a “Christian” beyond being a good person and going to church. Still, God didn’t leave me to dilly-dally long, disassociated and disoriented as I was.
In the summer of 1996, before I entered my freshman year in college, three separate events brought me to a deeper understanding of Christianity as being about a relationship with Jesus, not just a religion. The third of those events was the National Episcopal Youth Event (“EYE”) at the University of Indiana in Indianapolis. However, the experience itself did not begin there. I was just one of more than one hundred teenage delegates to attend EYE from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Because our delegation was so large, the Diocese gathered us for an overnight orientation preceding EYE and then flew us together to Indiana.
It was the first time I’d ever heard of Andover-Newton Theological School. That was the place we met on July 23. Our Diocese’s new bishop, the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, also joined us for orientation, intending to travel to the event as well. We spent the day getting to know other delegates in various small group activities. That afternoon I presented Bishop Tom with my printed and bound compilation of poetry and asked if he would read it and possibly give me feedback later on in our trip. He happily took it and agreed to do so.
That same evening we had some free time. Many of us gathered in the ANTS Student Lounge in Sturtevant Hall to watch the Olympics. It was the final day of team competition for women’s gymnastics. Countless other teenage girls and many of our adult chaperones all sat at the edge of their seats watching. We all gasped in sync as the Russians made mistakes that opened the door for the USA to win. Soon it was the final rotation with the Russian team on the Floor Exercise and the USA team on the Vault. We just needed one more clean vault, one more solid score to clinch the gold.
Kerri Strug then took her place to complete her first vault. We watched anxiously and cried out in harmony when she fell and was injured on her first vault. The lounge was filled with tension and beating hearts as we awaited her second attempt, praying, chanting in unison for her to “stick it.” Kerri limped back to the end of her runway after her coach, Béla Károlyi, gave her the pep talk of her life. She ran, she jumped, she flipped, and she stuck the landing! Although coming down on two feet, she almost instantly began hopping on one, indication of her intense pain before collapsing on her knees.
But she had won the USA team—the “Maginificent Seven”—its first ever team gymnastics gold medal! What a thrill to share such an incredibly historic moment with so many others there at ANTS that night. Suddenly, we were our own little nation within that building, sharing in the congratulations of our team. What a victory! What a joy! What an unforgettable day.
Why was that day so important?
To be continued.
The Art of Choosing True Life 