Diary - Amber Wirth |
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Diary - 5/31 How do you summarize the experience of a lifetime? Put into a few words the opportunity that I, that most of us, would never have had a chance to do? Although I know it is impossible to describe all that we experienced in Europe, I can say that this blue-collar Minnesota girl never thought (when I signed my NLI) that it was possible to play basketball, graduate, AND travel to Europe in 4 years! Long Island University has gone above and beyond in allowing us the trip of a lifetime (and I would know, I had a video camera strapped to my hand almost 24/7!). From the moment we landed in Czech, I knew that we weren’t ‘in Brooklyn anymore’!!! Traveling from Prague to Venice, Skofja Loka to Dubrovnik - and everything in between - has been crazy! Having mixed emotions during the trip - ecstatic for the opportunity, wonder and awe from the locations, and sadness knowing I’d have to eventually say goodbye to my teammates… my sisters… - left me quiet much of the time. That and not having a cell phone or internet - basically any communication to my family and that special someone in New York - left me frustrated at times. Beyond the free time, team meals, and sightseeing, I felt at ease the most when watching our underclassmen play. Seeing our girls blossom, especially in the last two games, I knew that our program is heading in the right direction (despite five seniors, including myself, graduating). Seeing the cohesiveness, leadership, and pure talent shown by our girls out there put a smile on my face and made me proud! I KNOW YOU GIRLS WILL BE GREAT NEXT YEAR! Back to the trip… some of my highlights included: trying to transition from dollars to euros, tollars, and kunas, seeing Marquita get attacked by 50 ravenous pigeons in Venice, seeing the look on my girl’s faces while riding the gondolas, ALL the food in Slovenia, seeing one of my teammates turn into a lobster in Croatia (B!), and hearing the song “Born in the USA” played during warm ups of our last game in Croatia. Its ironic that the only word that I consistently learned while in Europe was ‘thank you’. For it seemed everywhere I went, ‘thank you’ were the only words out of my mouth. To continue my ‘streak’ I would like to thank all those that made our trip possible. To Mr. Suarez, Provost Haynes (whom I know is a big fan of ours), Coach Ang for coordinating everything, and everyone else I forgot. To Coach Gaitley for allowing us seniors to ‘tag along’ even though it was a challenge to let us go in the first place. Thank you. Grazee. Havala. To Long Island University in general, thanks for taking a chance on a kid from small town Minnesota – for allowing me to represent your university through my career, and giving me a degree at the end of it. To my girls, thank you for being my second family, my sisters. I love you all and wish you the very best next year and years beyond. God bless you all for this opportunity, the opportunity of a lifetime!
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