Strangely though I feel as though I ought to at least make some effort to catch up at least a little before I delve into what will be one of the most momentous events in my life. So here's the synopsis of the past 6 months: Things with Jen are great and we moved in together in June. I went to New Hampshire for my interview, which involved a great deal of maneuvering on my part and found out in March that I was accepted into the Outdoor Education PhD program at UNH, and was offered a graduate assistanship to cover my tuition plus a 13K stipend, which was an absolute blessing. When I emailed my advisor to find out what I should do with regards to rugby and grad school since they seemed to be in opposition to each other, he gave his full blessing for my deferral and assured me that there would be money for me come the fall of 2007. So it appears my life is going along as planned.
I also got a part-time job working as a personal trainer and strength coach. This has been great because it has given me access to all the training equipment that have really accented my regimen leading up to World Cup.
Additionally I have continued with my work with Landmark Education and much more at home in myself as time wears on, not that I was hugely uncomfortable before, but just that I didn't how comfortable I could be. I did the advanced course in April and am currently working in the Self-Expression and Leadership program, which really is about taking what you're passionate about and really putting it into the world. For me that has and will continue to be really providing opportunities for children (both the young and the young at heart) to follow their dreams not matter what. It took me a while to figure out what that meant in the context of this program but finally I figured it out and have started doing some work on it. The premise is creating a mentorship program of sorts wear young female rugby players could actually contact the National team with questions, seeking advice, etc and we could respond. It would be the equivalent of a high school or middle school soccer player sending an email to the US Soccer team to ask about the best way to work on corner kicks and getting a response from Mia Hamm. How great of an opportunity would that be for us National Team players to be able to really give back to the future of women's rugby and to some degree have a hand in shaping it!?!. I don't really know how it would look as of yet, as it's still in it's infancy, but I have broached the topic with Kathy and she is supportive and I've started communicating with the board of the newly founded US Womens Rugby Foundation (www.uswrf.org) about possibly linking the two. So we'll see where that goes...
On the rugby side of things we have had several opportunities ot play together over the past 6 months. We got together in Chula Vista (though I didn't go due to an unfortunate shoulder injury), then agains in Blaine to play the Midwest, over the week of ITTs in Colorado when we got to play two internationals against Canada, and finally in a one-day camp at STanford in July. We went 1-1 during the Canada matches, which may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as it has shown us where we are vulnerable and also served to leave us really hungry heading into World Cup. I guess tomorrow we'll find out how hungry it made us.
Okay, so now I feel a little better about diving head first into this World Cup blog and don't feel quite so behind, though I hardly feel like I've done justice to the past 6 months of life, but alas we take what we can get.
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