Tonight was the night I took a step forward, backwards. It began with a simple phonecall, one that sent me through time and space back to when I was a child. I never realized our ghetto beginnings, hanging out in the locker room after swim practice next to the orange rusty lockers. The way we were influenced, the way we were immature, the way we acted, it was a miracle how we’ve turned out 13 years later. College graduates, married, jobless, buying homes, finding jobs, this is not how we remembered ourselves. Talk of old times, old friends, old faces. The time a bra was stolen, the time when someone almost had a concussion, the time where any number of fights threatened to break out. These events shaped us to be who we are now; yet, the new children, the new era, they didn’t have the wise, older teammates that we had. Lost direction, no guidance, what will become of them? When will we return to take up what has been lost? As I journeyed back through time I discovered long lost memories and found new ones. Digging up the ghosts of past I saw familiar and unfamiliar faces, distant, yet we have both been shaped by a simple connection ages ago.

DCD. Daly City Dolphins. A small team we were. We never had aspirations of being a large and fast team like those around us. We were a family. And when we tore through the competition at championships we never thought we’d see, people looked at us. Recognized us. How can a team of misfits, out of shape short little asians, ever hope to beat a team who has 2 pools the size of our own? How? Nobody knows. But we take home the gold. My journey here complete I continued forward, always facing forward even when hurtling backwards through time.

After I passed the giants my travels found me in an ever bustling place, a hub of all activity in this place. Stumbling upon a major artery, I hurtled through along with the many other people I discovered along the way. Steep hills soon became the norm but I knew I couldn’t stop. My destination was not here, continuing on to find the next clue was what needed to be done.