We're racing Eastern Michigan University (EMU, lol) tomorrow, and I'm glad I'm going to be able to race since I've finally been given the green light by the NCAA. Honestly, I was anticipating only being cleared a couple of weeks from now, so it is a pleasant surprise to receive news of the fact that they've finally sorted out everything. The only bad thing is that tomorrow's race is at Belleville Lake, our homeground (homewaters, whatever) so I don't get to travel to someplace exotic which is sort of sad, and I don't get twenty-five dollars in food money which is even more upsetting. But it's okay, at least we won't have to travel for a long time just to race for all of ten minutes, and we don't have to de-rig the boats and load the trailers for the journey. Anyway, since we were racing tomorrow, I expected today's practice to be something geared towards preparing us for our scrimmage tomorrow. So I think we all got an unexpected surprise when our coach, Vita, told us that we weren't going down to the boathouse since it was too blustery out. Instead, she packed us all into the vans we normally drive to practice, gave us a list of directions which we followed, and we ended up at a gravel lot 6 miles from campus, on the edge of a forested trail. And then she announced that we were going for, of all things, a hike. Well, yes, so we duly went for a hike. When I stepped onto the trail and into the cover of the trees, I was struck by how much it resembled Pasir Laba (just much prettier with the leaves turning shades of red and yellow) and the areas on which we had our compass and orienteering course in both Sierra and Air Wing. Just that this time it was so much easier to traipse over the leaves without a helmet and field pack and SBO and rifle and ET stick (how can I possibly forget my ET stick? The very bane of my existence). And it did bring back a strange yearning to be back in the woods with camouflage paint streaked across my face, in my number four, carrying my M-16, and just becoming a soldier again. When we finally emerged from the woods at the end of our hike, just before we turned around and started the trek back to our vans, we ended at a beautiful ridge overlooking a lake, flanked by trees with a kaleidoscope of colors and the occasional house on the opposite bank. It was breathtakingly beautiful, coupled with the fact that it was almost evening and the sun was fading into the backdrop as we stood and marveled at the beauty of nature. It's the little opportunities like these that reinforce how fortunate I am to be here.