Slice of Life 2022: 19 of 31- Julia's birthday post

     It's March, and March means the Slice of Life Story Challenge. All are welcome to join the challenge of noticing and writing about the moments of daily life that are stories.

For eleven years, I've been slicing in March, so my first post on March 19 wished Julia a happy 13th birthday. Daughter #2 turns 24 today, and it's been a year. The ups and downs of the last 12 hours sums up the ups and downs of her year. Yesterday, our perfectly planned and scheduled Spirit flight was delayed four hours and then canceled. We worked fast and got on a Frontier flight as the last four passengers. A child in the seats behind us cried, no-- screamed, for almost the whole trip. (She fell asleep as the plane was descending.) Once we landed at 11:50 pm, there was no gate for the plane, and we sat on the plane for an hour. It was a depressing announcement when the pilot announced we could unbuckle and use the bathroom because it would be a while. And that kid behind us? Back to screaming. So that was the start of the birthday. 

It took another hour to get bags and a car, and another couple hours to drive from Orlando to Tampa, our original destination and where we needed to meet up with Daughter #3 in the hotel we had booked. She was sound asleep when we checked in at 3:40 am. 

Julia's year began with some downs, but what highs she had. Even though she postponed her graduation from Wesleyan, we celebrated her and her graduating friends on a hot but beautiful May day. 

She went on in the year to captain the most successful Wesleyan women's soccer game in history, and played with every bit of joy and commitment of anyone I've ever seen. 

Julia's team finished their season in the Final Four, a major accomplishment in the career of any college athlete. You can see a bit of the celebration and joy in these pictures taken after their overtime win against MIT that sent them to the semifinals in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

 

And at the tournament, Julia was awarded with the Elite 90 award, given to the Final Four athlete with the highest GPA, as well as a spot on the all-tournament team and a place on the CoSIDA All American team. What an amazing career. 

The last couple of months have focused on recovering from a torn ACL a week after returning to campus from the tournament, but she's well on her way, and currently at the hotel gym as I sit and write this post. Even with a 4 am bedtime, she is up and at it, working hard on her recovery. 

Just as the weekend holds great promise, so does the upcoming year for Jules, as she'll head off to a postbac program and medical school this May. This girl. Happy birthday to Julia!