No Do-Overs

A kid's life is full of do-overs. I can remember countless games of one on one against my dad that wouldn't end until I was ahead. Video games would be stopped and re-started if a certain level wasn't reached, and high school teachers always encouraged make-up work. However, somewhere on the road to adulthood we are forced to accept that do-overs do not exist in real life, and all of that pretending just sets us up to think of ourselves as greater than we actually are. A college professor who draws a hard line on late work, a sales pitch gone bad, and your favorite team losing a much anticipated match-up all bluntly re-enforce this harsh reality.

I really wanted a do-over this morning. Just as my friend Kyle had predicted, my alma mater lost it's season opener against LSU. It was bad. We looked unprepared, undisciplined, sloppy and (the biggest sin of all for a Duck) slow. And so my time in Korea ends just as it had begun, and while this loss doesn't hurt as bad as the infamous LaGarrette Blount punch game, it deflates the feeling of excitement for the remaining eleven games in the same way.

While most Oregon fans re-hashed the game with friends, watched highlights on the atrocity on television, and soon went to bed, I had a full day of sulking ahead of me. Fortunately, our friends Connie, Steve and Angie came over to see the baby one last time and, unbeknownst to them, take my mind off of the loss. We have known Connie nearly our entire two years in Korea. Sami met her and one of our orientations, and we learned that she lives somewhat near us on the other side of town. Angie and Steve are an older Korean couple (those are their chosen English names) that have been very kind and welcoming to the three of us in our time here. Steve and Angie have incredibly positive and infectious attitudes, and are both smitten with our baby daughter. Tonight they ordered in for us and brought over ice-cream cake. We ate one of my favorite Korean foods- haemul chim, which is a spicy mix of seafood and bean sprouts, we are talking muscles, octopus, whole shrimp and big hunks of crab.  We were sad when the three of them left and we knew it would be a long time, if ever, before we will see them again.

Ice-cream cakes! Choco, cherry, blueberry and melon

Steve holding Charlie

Sami, Steve, Connie, Angie (barely visible)

Being an adult means that there are no do-overs. But it also is to know that good can be found in even the down days. Steve and Angie don't know anything about football. Most Koreans don't. But even they understand that there are always more games to be played. Some of them you win, and some of them you lose, but you can always bounce back. And you can always order ice-cream cake.