2 chainz

MY OLYMPICS JOURNEY: Savoring the “small” moments

I keep getting the same nagging feeling.

With each passing day of the 2014 Winter Olympics, I am bombarded with experience after unique experience.

But, I wonder, how many will just as rapidly slip from my memory?

I am a big believer in capturing moments however possible. On a week-long vacation, I will snap a thousand photos. When I have time at home, I write a journal about my day. I do it all in a seemingly vain pursuit: to remember as many of the numerous encounters and events that make up my life.

But at the Olympics, in a strange way, this task is more difficult.

Even though I am equipped with a variety of moment-capturing devices – my WXIA-TV video camera, for starters, as well as a smart-phone and laptop – I cannot possibly find the time to snap everything I see in Sochi. And the experiences happen both sporadically yet furiously.

The smaller moments – the more likely ones to slip through my memory’s cracks – are the ones I savor the most.

These are the chance encounters: the cheerful Russian Starbucks barista who remembers my name every day; the Asian journalist who tried to trade pins with me despite a massive language barrier; the Dutch speed skating team that happily granted my interview request by the Olympic rings.

When will these moments ever come up in conversation? When will they naturally pop into my head? How will I remember them if I experience so many of them?

With that in mind, I write this entry both as a window for my readers and a public continuation of that vain pursuit. I want to share a few of the “smaller” encounters that have made this Olympic experience so rich:

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