The majority of my time is spent with rowing people. I’m sure that does not come as a shock to most of you since my previous articles tend to resort back to my love for this sport and my teammates. Well here’s another case of deja vu because, this week’s article consists of none other than rowing people. More specifically, I want to relay some newfound memories I’ve made with them in the past few days, and past fall/winter season. If you play a collegiate sport that takes up six mornings of your week and some evenings, you’ll understand what I mean when I say these people are literally your other family. The best part of a rowing team is you experience so many kinds of people; men and women alike and very different. It is also because of how strenuous your schedule is that I often find myself questioning why I put my body through a black eye, skinned knees (I’ll explain later), sleep deprivation, and frequent loads of laundry every week. Yet, the only reason I am capable of recuperating from such events, is the people I experience them with.

Today my abs hurt from laughing so hard yesterday. Yesterday was the team’s annual seasonal showdown that consisted of hilarious relay races; piggy-back rides, romantic holding of hands to find our shoes, 400 meters worth of yelling, and painfully funny crab-walk races.

Riley crossed successes on the Hamel courts whilst hoisting JT over his left shoulder.

Laura reached heights when she was lifted up to the basketball rim to rescue her black sneaker that was kindly hidden by our coaches.

My knees were stripped of their first layer of skin after an unfortunate eating of sh** while running to get a kettle bell.

Our teammates came incredibly close to guessing the coaches’ favorite movie(s). Zack’s is none other than Mamma Mia, but Joe does not favor Top Gun or Austin Powers as much as we had hoped.

The morning’s formal entertainment was a show stopper, performed by well-known groups like JT Has Small Biceps, Muscle Beach, Silverbacks, Peaceful Protestors, and Oscar-winning performances of The Nativity Scene and remembering Harambe.

After finishing the exercises and packing up the boat house for the winter, the evening turned into one of my favorite memories thus far. Again, the annual, Crew Christmas Cocktail brought on some painful laughter. After everyone went out with their small groups, we all met up at the MUB for a night of talent and politics. (Can I just say, everyone looked AMAZING. We clean up gooooooddddd.)

The muscle show didn't stop after the morning; the guys partook in an epic push-up battle and JT embraced his perspiration during the “gun” show.

The night would not have been a success without some music, and thankfully the opening act consisted of Grant’s guitar strumming talents and the rest of the men’s team’s vocal performance of the hit song “Wagon Wheel.” Ashley Floyd brought her guitar to bless us with a rower's version of “Teardrops On My Guitar” accompanied by the gorgeous voices of Hannah, Grace and, Sydney.

Finally, the night couldn't conclude without the crowing of Cocktail Queen. Andrea fought hard to protect her puppetry argument and colorful disagreement with O'brien potatoes, but in the end, Bill was elected the gender neutral royalty.

The rest of the night is for the crew team to know…

I’m not quite sure who won yesterday’s events, but I can tell you we all left with some pretty great memories.

P.S Hey mom, hey Grant :)

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