I don't have much time for a post since my luggage is all packed and the last item to go inside is this very laptop, so I shall try to be brief.

Today was less hectic, though we spent it all in the LONGEST meeting ever, haha. At least it was all interesting content and we were able to take lots of tiny breaks. They brought up three panelists to talk about their different Paralympic experiences. We had a lesson in basic Chinese language and etiquette. We had a briefing on personnel and Village etceteras. We had some brief media training. Took individual and team photos and signed miles of posters. I've lost track of all the odds and ends we covered today.

We're all packed up (except for me, of course) and I'm a little vague on the timing, but the gear needs to be up at Athlete check-in soon to be shipped off to Denver ahead of us. Then sometime this evening we go down to the cafeteria for breakfast, and then start our day of travel through the night. Or something. I think our flight from Denver to San Fran is at six in the morning? I forget. Honestly, my plan is to sleep whenever and wherever I can, because once we're on the flight to China we're going to be genuinely awake and trying to adjust to China time. I'm trying not to think about it because if I did I'd get hopelessly confused and they've paid for more intelligent people than I to go over these details and plan our logistics. So I'll trust them instead and do as I'm told. :)

I was really inspired by some of the stories the panelists told, and hopefully I'll be able to go over the details soon, since I took notes, and a couple photos... but for now, I'll leave you with a poem that John, the lead speaker whose name I cannot remember, finished with.

---

If
by Rudyard Kipling
circa 1895


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Woman, my daughter,
and a Man, my son!


(final lines adapted by speaker)