Dunlap's Corner

So if you haven't sold your soul to the devil and you actually root for the good guys, you know exactly what the title of this post refers to.  It was September 23, 2006 a normal college football Thursday in the great city of Raleigh at the Mecca of college football in the ACC...Carter Finley Stadium (alright alright...give me a break).   Well to make a long story short, NC State was down 15-10 with less than a minute to go.  With sophomore Daniel Evans leading the calvary, the Wolfpack marched down the field and with :08 left, Evans connected with John Dunlap for 33 yards and the TD in the corner of the endzone for the winning score.  At that moment, NOTHING else mattered, not how I was getting home, not the three random guys I awkwardly hugged after the score, and definitely not the test I had the next day (i wasn't going anyways and honestly that had nothing to do with the aduly beverages that were consumed tailgating before the game).  All 50,000+ Wolfpack fans had the exact same feeling...complete euphoria!  That kind of feeling only comes around when someting special happens and you never foget it.

Fast forward 3 years 350 days to September 8, 2010.  I got that same feeling today.  But not from a football game but from seeing a smiling little face who has no idea what he does for the others around him.  I spent all summer with this little boy from El Salvador and was always excited to see him but nothing like today.  Today was like Christmas morning (specifically Christmas morning 1991 when I got my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Van...so you know it was a big deal).  You know it's coming and you can hardly stand it.  All day I was waiting until 4:10pm for the bus to show up but of course it was late.  And then it happened...his sister and cousins got off of the bus first but he was nowhere to be found (and that's not the most comforting thing to see considering his english is mediocre at best and this child doubles as Tarzan in his free time...).  And then out from behind a group of kids jumped "Tarzan".  From about 20 yards away here he came in a dead sprint (cue Chariots of Fire music in slow motion) screaming Hola! Hola!  I barely had enough time to clear a path for him before he jumped up and gave me the biggest hug I have had in a long time.  It was Dunlap's Corner all over again.  That feeling of excitement that only comes around when something special happens.  So my journey with "Tarzan" started over again today and it promises to be an adventure all year.  My only hope is that I can impact him half as much as he has already impacted me. 

Never forget your "Christmas mornings" or "Dunlap's Corners"...keep those feelings with you all the time and remember  "the best things come in small packages!"