The Cool Kid Table

I have a confession to make: I am not, and have never been, one of the "cool kids". Even from my formative years in grade school, I was always a bit different and thus at the periphery of the secret inner circle of coolness. As I chose to wear my brother's hand-me-downs instead of the favored Gap Kids pastel outfits and had a weird fascination with creepy crawly critters, I suppose that my nonconformity set me up to be an outsider. In high school, this trend continued, as I pursued decidedly uncool individual sports in lieu of soccer or lacrosse. My disinterest in fashion also had a role to play once again, I'm sure.

When I reached college, the delineation between cool and uncool was no longer quite as fixed and I no longer stuck out quite as much. In my mind, however, the Middlebury "cool kids" were the nordies, or nordic skiiers. As the only Division 1 sport on campus, these athletes held a certain kind of mystique for me. They trained hard, looked hardcore and dressed the part in their Carhartt jeans, trucker caps and rugged belts. It also helped their status that they tended to be taller and far more attractive than the average student on campus. As a dorky swimmer, I looked at these athletes as the paragon of elite athletes and secretly desired to belong in their special elite ranks, pining away from afar to be as tough as them.

At this point in my blog, you are probably wondering two things: 1) how can someone as awesome as Sarah consider herself uncool? and 2) how does this tie into In the Arena? I'll address both questions presently. I've been thinking about this subject since last week, when I held a conference call with the other In the Arena athletes and Amory. Maybe you've noticed that quite a few of my fellow athletes are nordic skiiers, including a fellow Middlebury '04 grad, Kate Whitcomb (at the risk of further embarassment, I totally put her, her Carhartts and her athletic ability on a pedastal). You can be sure that I took note of this fact and am pleased to be in such company. I feel like the nerdy new girl at school who has been invited to sit in the cafeteria with the table of cool kids, waiting for the imminent exposure of her true dorky self. I am painfully aware that triathletes have a certain geeky stereotype. I'll just try to conceal my true self as long as possible from my fellow ITA athletes. This posting may have blown my cover, however...

In all seriousness, I am pretty cool too. I still may dress funny, however. More importantly, I loved having the opportunity to talk with the other ITA athletes and look forward to meeting them at some point in time. I'll just make sure that I leave my brother's cast-offs at home.