One Shining Moment.

I love college basketball. It was the first sport I started watching regularly, and it remains my favorite way to pass two hours. I enjoy reading articles speculating about who the next big player might be. I spend hours filling out my March Madness brackets. I go to every home game my schedule possibly can fit in.

For those of you who do not follow college basketball, the season ends when the NCAA tournament ends. This is usually one of the first Mondays in April. Last night was this year's championship game- Kansas beat Memphis in overtime in a very well-matched game. After the clock runs out, after the streamers fall from the rafters, after the winning players don their "national champions" hats and t-shirts and cut down the nets, there comes the best 3 minutes and 11 seconds on television all year (to me): the annual "One Shining Moment" music/highlight video. This montage shows all the pivotal plays and players from the entire tournament- the smiles, the mascots, the cheers, the tears, the screaming, the coaches, and the players. I judge the entire season by that video. (The lyrics are reprinted at the end of this post for those of you interested; the OSM movies from the last few years are usually available on youtube)

Last night, waiting up past the midnight hour for this year's highlight reel, I wondered what a One Shining Moment video for my life would include. What are the moments that defined where I am? Defending my Honors thesis at UCF? Graduation from high school? Meeting people who would become my best friends? Finding the perfect prom dress? Getting my first real job offer? Crying over my bleeding feet after a double shift at Olive Garden? Breakups? Makeups? Vacations?

It seems like the point of OSM each year is to show the important plays- the best and worst and most emotional moments of the tournament. And in retrospect, very few of those moments in life are traditional milestones for me.

I think my video would include:
- pressing apple cider in upstate New York with my friend Nick's family a few years ago
- touring Furman's campus with the academic team my freshman year of high school, especially a couple of sun-drenched shots of the guys playing pickup football on the hill above the football field.
- dancing in the rain the last night I was at the Duke Marine Lab, ten years ago this summer
- shopping for Kristina's wedding dress
- sleeping over in the guest room at Emily's house in Lemonwood. I kept the key to that house on my keyring long after she moved out.
- the day we moved out of the house I grew up in.
- the morning I woke up and Santa brought me the American Girls doll I so desperately wanted.
- my initiation into my sorority
- breakfast at Carmichaels through the years
- my first time visiting New York City- the park, the museums, the shopping
- the Final Four last year in Atlanta. Yes, even my "life" version of One Shining Moment includes college basketball- I'll never forget being there when UF won back to back championships.

There are some sadder moments, too, but they're not as important. They serve only as the backdrop that make the rest of the moments so profoundly beautiful to me. Only with the nights in a hospital, the hours spent writing a eulogy, the car accidents, the heartbroken nights I couldn't sleep, can I really appreciate how important my first snow and first car were.

What would be in your highlight video?


And, as promised, for those of you wondering:

One Shining Moment
by David Barrett

The ball is tipped
and there you are
you're running for your life
you're a shooting star
And all the years
no one knows
just how hard you worked
but now it shows...
(in) ONE SHINING MOMENT, IT'S ALL ON THE LINE
ONE SHINING MOMENT, THERE FROZEN IN TIME

But time is short
and the road is long
in the blinking of an eye
ah that moment's gone
And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU REACHED DEEP INSIDE
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU KNEW YOU WERE ALIVE

Feel the beat of your heart
feel the wind in your face
it's more than a contest
it's more than a race...

And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU REACHED FOR THE SKY
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU KNEW
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU WERE WILLING TO TRY
ONE SHINING MOMENT....