The Buried Life

I have never really given much thought to having a formal ‘Bucket List‘ in my life. However, I think everyone has a mental list of things that they’d like to do/experience at some point before they die and for me, going to the Olympics was probably one of the things I’ve had on my unofficial Bucket List for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure I even thought I’d get to do it in my own country, and I certainly never dreamed I’d get to participate in the whole thing. It feels great to be able to cross something like this off my ‘unofficial’ list, and now I can’t stop thinking about the things I’m going to want to do next….

MTV has recently started airing a show called “The Buried Life“, about four university guys who have set out to complete their bucket list of 100 items. For every item they cross of their list, they help a stranger cross something off their list as well. If you haven’t seen this show, and even if you wouldn’t include yourself among the ‘MTV generation’, I seriously recommend checking it out (you can watch the episodes commercial free online). I find it completely inspiring, and it has certainly got me thinking about creating my own official list now that I’ve actually been able to cross something off it. And although going to the Olympics is not that much of an unattainable goal, the sheer happiness of having done something on the list is momentum enough to keep going…

I promise that my posts from here on out won’t be this philisophical, but I did end up looking up why these guys wanted to call their show “The Buried Life” – turns out, it’s because of a poem by the famous poet and critic Matthew Arnold, who I actually spent some time studying in university. Wise words indeed….

But often, in the world’s most crowded streets,
But often, in the din of strife,
There rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life;
A thirst to spend our fire and restless force
In tracking out our true, original course…

In an unrelated update: great pictures from the torch relay continue, like this one.

She works hard for the money…and the vacation!

Another step this week. Booked off time from work for my Olympics adventure!

Many people have been quite surprised that my work has been willing to grant me three and a half weeks off to participate in this experience. Several factors have made this possible. First of all, the organization I work for is incredibly supportive of employees pursuing personal and professional development. As an educational institution, they certainly view an experience like this as a great learning opportunity. It probably doesn’t hurt that the top executive of my organization has a prominent position with VANOC either! As a matter of fact, she was a great source of encouragement and guidance during my application process.

Second of all, my boss has been behind me 100% since the moment I told her I had applied. She had seen my  excitement and passion for the Olympics when they were on in Beijing, and has completely supported me and had my back as I’ve been going through this process. I knew that if worse came to worse, she would go to bat for me. Knowing that she was in my corner took away a lot of the stress and worry about being able to take time off. It also has helped that February is one of the least busy times for my role, so if I had to take this much time off it was a good time to do so

Lastly, I’m very lucky to work for an organization that is good to its employees. Hard work is rewarded, and I’m lucky enough to have a significant amount of vacation time per year. The hard part has been trying to strategically distribute my vacation time over the last few months, not sure whether or not I would need it for Vancouver! I can only carry over so many days a year so I was trying to make sure that I’d have enough for the Olympics if need be, but not let too much go to waste if I didn’t! As of December, I’ll have accumulated just enough vacation time to cover the three and a half weeks at the Olympics, and will have a few days left when I return in March. It actually worked out perfectly.

Another step done. Now that the time is booked off and as I’m starting to prepare for the things I’ll need to get done so all runs smoothly in February, it’s starting to feel a bit more real. At the same time, it’s still very surreal. I don’t think it has hit me yet, and probably won’t until the week before I leave. What I AM thinking about is how seriously lucky I am to have this opportunity, and to have been given the circumstances (and support!) that are allowing me to participate. I was just sitting her thinking about what I WOULD have been thinking at this time had I not applied. As the Olympic commercials, previews and specials are becoming more prominent now, I know that I would have been wondering “What if?”

Moral of the story? In the words of the great Canadian athlete and Olympian, Wayne Gretzky: “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Step By Step

This whole volunteer application process has really been a step by step process. When I applied way back in March, I had so many concerns about how much the trip could cost, whether or not I’d have accommodation, how I could take that much time off work, etc., etc. However, I figured that if I was going to apply, I’d  have to just deal with each hurdle as it came up; wait for A, then worry about B. Figure B out, then worry about C…and so on. And although I’m literally mid-process now, I find that these little hurdles keep arising, and I have to continue to take each one step by step.

So far, the steps in the process have looked something like this:

1. Apply
2. Wait…and wait some more
3. Secure accommodation
4. More waiting
5. Interview
6. Look at flight options and costs
7. Talk to my boss
8. Wait
9. Get my offer
0. Talk to HR
11. Get my volunteer schedule
12. Book my flight
13. Change my schedule because of date conflicts
14. Get assigned a new role

Each time I have gotten one step further, I have crossed another hurdle. Today’s hurdle involves transportation – something I never considered to be an issue because not only to volunteers get free access to all public transit during the games, but because I also knew they were going to be adding a lot more routes and times. But, since my accommodations are actually in Burnaby and many of my shifts start at 5am, turns out – I may NOT be able to get to my venue that early in the A.M. via public transit (based on the schedules I’ve looked at). I’d probably have to be getting on the bus/train by about 4:15am, and it doesn’t seem that they’ll be running until 5am. I’ve since emailed my Events Services coordinator and explained my concerns. Luckily, he’s been very understanding and is going to see if there’s another transit option I haven’t considered. Safety is also a concern for me, as I’m not too excited about walking several blocks to a bus station by myself in the dark at that hour.

Fortunately, this isn’t something that will make or break my role and with any luck, I’m hoping they might just give me some later shifts! LOL. The nice thing about problems like this is that they know we’re volunteers – they can only expect so much! Having said that, the last thing I want is to be difficult, and I certainly don’t want to risk putting my offer on the line. The good news is that the closer we get to the games, the fewer hurdles there will be to figure out.

One of the exciting next steps I took this week, involved signing up for a time to get my uniform and volunteer accreditation! It just made me realize how close this is really getting….71 days and counting!