It’s officially time for the Bobcats to go home for
Christmas break. At 5:30 this morning a small gathering ensued at the Portland airport
as Maddy and I were dropped off by Tara in her PJs. Condor of course arrived at
the same time as we did, sporting a massive fur hat, to drop off Connor Gray.
After a breakfast date at the bagel shop (the only place to eat in the Portland
airport) we all went our separate ways, Connor on his way to Altanta (LOL).
This is the first time in a while that the team has split
for this long. Although many of us have mixed feelings about going home,
because let’s face it Bates really does feel like home, a break is going to be
good for us. I always say that in college you sometimes get stuck in a bubble.
I tend to learn about current news one or two weeks late and sometimes
forget that we are in a holiday season. This break represents a time to spend
time with family, enjoy the holidays, and to reflect on the past semester.
As a team we’ve had an awesome first semester. There has
been a lot of learning, both in the classroom, and in our daily practices.
We’ve adopted an amazing group of first years who feel like they’ve always been
here. We’ve also adopted a new assistant coach, who I’m pretty sure has had an
impact on everyone’s technique and attitude. Almost every week we have gotten
to experience Becky’s cheering during Lost Valley intervals. We went to Rangeley
and my team did not win the apple pie baking competition; our pie was more
commonly known as “the undercooked mole hill”. We took a beautiful ferry ride
to North Haven Island to do the Lobster Roll rollerski race. Then, it was
suddenly Thanksgiving camp. The boys grew their mustaches out, and the girls
tried their best to do the same. We skied every day amongst other eastern teams and remembered how thankful we are to be able to call this team our family. The
grand finale came with finals week. There was a screaming baby on my plane ride
this morning and I thought, “Oh, girlfriend, I feel your pain.” Enough said.
After going to a fun race at Colby last weekend, it became
apparent to me that ski season is just around the corner. Many of us have qualifiers
that we are going home to. During the last week of break, a group is heading to
the UP to Houghton for Senior Nationals while the rest of the crew will be at
Sugarloaf for a camp. The following week we will return to school and BOOM,
there’s the Bates Carnival. It’s been another whirlwind of a semester and
sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’ve had enough time. The reality is, we’ve accomplished so much in the past few months and soon we will be able to put together all of
the hard work into something great.
I am going to miss the team a lot this Christmas break, but
am so excited to be going home to my family for the holidays. All of the
Bobcats deserve a break to revive themselves before the craziest and most fun
six weeks of the year. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to play in the
snow, hug your dog (or cat), eat
lots of Christmas cookies (maybe gain a few, it’ll help on the downhills), and
drink plenty of eggnog.
Happy Holidays!
-Laurel
