January 15, 1995 was a date that I won’t forget. I was 14 and it was the first time that I learned to snow ski. A church group went to Mt. Crescent, Iowa. Like most farm kids from Nebraska, I learned to ski on a big hill rather than the Rocky Mountains. I know this doesn’t sound like a significant milestone to most people, but to me, I remembered the date afterward because that ski trip turned out to be the day that I consider my transition out of childhood and into adolescence. I stopped being a kid and developed a new perspective on the world. How can I view this transition as one day? Well, I remember skiing that day with a couple friends. We were able to go off on our own and ski independent of the adults. It was the first time we were given significant adult-less responsibility. In the following years of high school, we were teammates, classmates, and still best friends. We went through challenges and fun times and we did it together. And as time went by, those friends that I skied with that day remain some of my closest friends to this day.
January 15, 2000 was the date that I made the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. Out of high school, my plan was to go to the U.S. Air Force Academy. But a broken collar bone derailed that dream. Instead, I accepted an academic scholarship to the University of Nebraska to study electrical engineering. I was set on playing college football so I met with one of the assistant coaches and he informed me that since the walk-on class was already full, my best option to make the team would be to try out in January of my freshman year. I trained hard that fall semester and on January 15 I ran through a series of physical tests. A 40-yd dash, a 10-yd dash, a vertical jump and a pro- agility test were the four items that made up the combine. Apparently, I did well enough on the tests to be asked to join the spring football team as a runningback.
January 15, 2006 was the date that I was named to the 2006 Olympic bobsled team. I had joined the national bobsled team just sixteen months prior and had only two world cup seasons under my belt when the announcement was made. I had started the sport because I met a track star from the University of Nebraska that was recruited to be on the national bobsled team. She convinced me that I had the right size and build for a bobsledder. I had just finished playing football and NFL teams weren’t exactly calling me. So I tried out for the team and made it in a similar way that I passed the combine test to make the Husker team. When the 2006 team was announced, we had just finished a race in Konigssee, Germany. Even though I had been in my spot on the team all season, I was still nervous when they started reading the names of the team. Since the list was alphabetical, mine was the last one called. I immediately called home, forgetting that it was the middle of the night back in the United States. I think I woke my mom up, but I’m sure she has forgiven me for breaking such great news to her at a horrible hour.
Someday when I get married, I wonder if the only way I’ll be able to remember my anniversary is if I get married on January 15!
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