a big group hug

sports day (which is actually a week and a half of sports playing and about two months of preparation) is officially over. if i know high school kids, at least half of'em are out finding beer/wine coolers/cheap thai whiskey to imbibe this evening. well deserved, kids.

at the end of the two days of solid competition, there was a huge awards ceremony to give out trophies to all the winners--the football champs (boys/girls, m1-3/m4-5), the volleyball champs, the netball champs, the basketball champs, the overall sports champs, and the dance champs. an unusual silence fell over the crowd when they announced the winners for that one.

right as they announced the dance champs, the monsoon season came in with full force. pouring rain, all over all the kids who were sitting all over a dirty, soon-to-be-extremely-muddy field. at first everyone ducked for cover. but then a couple boys came out into the rain on the field. they were joined by a few other boys, who all motioned for everyone to come out on the field. soon enough, everyone was back on the field, in the pouring rain.

they started singing and holding hands, grinch-style. and magically, the rain stopped. the song went on for a few minutes, all these kids from all these different teams, holding hands and belting out the words. as soon as the song ended, the rain came back. FREAKY MAGICAL SPORTS DAY COINCIDENCE? i think not.

the whole thing gave me chills. that they could have all these weeks of being on separate teams, competing against each other, losing to each other only minutes before, and now they were all singing and dancing in the rain together. no bitterness, no grudges, no complaining about how unfair the judging was.

these kids are amazing.