Afterglow (Beijing, China)

I remember racing as fast as I could past the orange groves and the Yeehaw Junction signs in my Dodge Shadow in the midst of my three hour drive from Boca Raton to Bartow, Florida to watch the 1996 Opening Ceremonies at my best friend’s, Tom’s house.

I couldn’t afford to fly to Atlanta and watch it in person. I was also so broke that I couldn’t even afford the gas in my car to drive the full 8 hours back to Atlanta. And besides, I had just broken up with my Atlanta girlfriend, Sara, because the long distance relationship rendered our love useless. So I didn’t want to feel worse by being in and around the places we haunted together.

I moved to Atlanta in October 1992 for college just as the preparations for the Olympics had hit full steam. I felt the energy. I could feel the excitement building.

And in February of 1996, I graduated college and took a job in Boca Raton across from the IBM Research and Development headquarters where the first IBM PC was created. My office was just across from the road where the chartered flight touched down that held Bill Gates and Paul Allen who had an operating system called Microsoft DOS – that would be a cheaper alternative to the IBM DOS.

And it broke my heart to be leaving the city as the eyes of the world were about to descend on it.

So in the sleepy town of Bartow, Florida where my best friend had taken a forestry job – we watched his small color television eating hot wings and pizza – wishing we were home.

But the saddest aspect of the Olympics is the week after; a subtle depression seems to hit the entire city. A feeling of, “I can’t believe its over.”

And now twelve years later, Beijing proved to be no different.

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