Well Written Words from M/n Karen Gilkey, 4/c

There are moments in everyone's lives that will define them. For those of us at Kings Point, we have those, but I believe that there are also some moments that are not nessecarily defining as far as our lives go. These moments remind us why we go to this school. Why we go through the daily routine for so much of the year. Why we put up with everything in the regiment. Why we eat delano (mostly being poor college students). I believe that these moments are just as powerful as some others. Just when you think you can't take anymore of being here, and just when you think that every day just gets worse...there is a rare moment that makes you look to the future of when you will graduate and move on to your career. As a freshman I have not had many of these moments yet. How many I will have, I'm not sure. When I go out to sea perhaps. Definitely when I graduate and see the completion of all of my efforts. However, I get a feeling that most of these, I'll say clarifying, moments will come out of the waterfront. Never being on an actual sports team before, the offshore sailing team is an opportunity set out for me that I cannot even begin to describe what a blessing it is. Chris Branning always told the crew of Diana that what we have the chance to do, the boats that we are sailing on as freshman...it's almost unheard of. It's one of the things that makes Kings Point so unique. It's one of the things that gets me through the tough times here. I don't know what I would do if I did not have the sailing team to lean on. I haven't trailed off, I promise. I had one of these "clarifying" moments today. When I was sitting on Diana waiting to start on some work, A BEAUTIFUL boat came into the basin. It was breathtaking, it looked like a scene from a movie. Now, I don't even want to know how much that boat cost. It has to be ridiculous. That's when it hit me though, not for the first time, just how lucky I am to be here. I would never even have dreamed of seeing something like that if I had gone to a normal college, much less even been able to apreciate just how beautiful it was. Not to mention the other countless numbers of boats that are down at the waterfront, and the fact that I get to sail a Farr 40. When I first came on the sailing team, I had no idea how monumental it was that I would be learning how to sail for the first time on a Farr 40. So, after pulling up the cabin top and sealing it, as I was walking to delano I noticed for, I think, the first time...I was truly happy to be here. When any Kings Pointer says to another Kings Pointer that they are happy to be here, they might be sent to Patton for counseling. But I was, absolutely just happy with it. So, to all those people on the sailing team (especially the crew of Diana) I can't thank you guys enough. You make this place more than bearable, and I can't think of what it would be like without you.