University of Illinois

Dear Blog followers,

Never did I think that I would be fifteen and looking at a college!  (This post should be in orange and blue, but since orange is hard to read, we'll just have to settle for blue and black.  You can look at my orange background once-in-a-while :)

In December, my parents gave me the opportunity to go to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a birthday present.  We were able to go for spring break and spend two days there.  On Thursday we went on a tour of the campus.  As we walked we found why it is in the BIG 10.  Friday we met with Adam Bleakney the coach of the University of Illinois wheelchair racing team.

Coach Bleakney showed us the training facility, introduced us to athletes and gave us tips to improve my performance.  One of my favorite moments was when we rounded a corner and Garrett and Iannah, who were walking behind me, said in unison "Whoa!" at the sight of a room full racing wheelchairs.  For me the greatest thing in being there was meeting other wheelchair racers.  

I explained it to a friend like this: imagine that your favorite color was purple and you did everything in purple.  You had heard of professionals doing everything in purple, but you rarely got to meet anyone else who did everything in purple.  Then one day you were invited to the purple club. 

When I met  Susannah Scaroni, Ray Martin and Brian Siemann, who were all in the London 2012 Paralympic games, I was very excited, and my dreams of representing my country on a world level did not seem far away.  God so kindly used the trip to encourage me to keep going after my goal of sharing the good news to other impaired athletes.  Thank you to my parents for the trip and to coach Bleakney for his time.

Now, I am looking forward to track camp at the University of Illinois in just two weeks!