Up to this point, the bike tour was the most influential and memorable part of my life. Before joining up with The Team and DV, I had a mid life crisis at the young age of 19. My thoughts on life were so distorted that I slowly became apathetic. I did not know who and what were important to me which in turn added to my decision of moving to Canada for the summer and completely excluding handball from my life. It was destiny which brought me back to my senses and also back home to Illinois after about a month but I still felt a sense of emptiness. I did everything from getting a job to seeing a psychiatrist to even sitting at home all day but nothing seemed to work. After watching the webcast of the nationals and hearing about the bike tour, a light bulb went off which aided to my decision to leave home for a while. I then immediately contacted DV to see if I can join the tour hoping to find what I was looking for and to also see if I could spark my interest again for handball. After the okay, I left home without telling a single person leaving everything on hold.
Upon arriving in St. Louis to meet up with Emmett and Chapman, I slowly started to regret my decision. I felt out of place and more distorted. It wasn’t until a warm welcome at 3am by Chapman and Emmett in which I felt belonged. While waiting for the bike tour to resume, I lost EVERY single competition Chapman had set up at his house for us starting from ping pong to hand pong to pool to lagging to darts and finally to dungeon ball. Known for my non aggressive tendencies, the first few days taught me to become more competitive, confident, and aggressive.
After finally leaving St. Louis, THE CREW resumed the bike tour down south in Tennessee. I was a little hesitant going into the first clinic but quickly turned it around knowing how all the handball players were enthused. By helping the other players, it was a good way for me to get back into handball going through all the basics. Many memorable events happened at my first clinic from staying and playing tennis at a random person’s house to almost having to give CPR to one of the hosts. I was slowly starting to feel a comfortable groove in my life, one in which I had not felt in a long time.
As the tour proceeded, giving the clinics became easier and more proficient. By playing all kinds of players, it motivated me to once again be competitive. It wasn’t until the third or fourth clinic in which I started to see where I was going with this tour. Seeing how appreciated the players were almost brought tears to my eyes and felt like I actually meant something in this world. Throughout the tour, I went white water rafting to playing golf and tennis to even playing in the mayors cup. Unfortunately, the tour came to an end too soon. As the last few days rolled by, all I could think about were all the fun times I had as well as listening to Emmett’s beautiful voice to Fink’s horrible toots and finally DV’s never ending kindness and passion for handball. This bike tour was just what I needed to boost my life in a positive way. I will never forget all the good times that I had with Emmett, Fink, and DV and I hope to once again join them as they conquer a new adventure. I would also like to thank them for saving my life and reintroducing me back into the great game of handball.
-Suhn Lee
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