Relay for Life

May 30^th arrived. It was time for Relay for Life. Relay for Life is the American Cancer Society’s largest annual fundraiser and is a community-affirming event about celebration, remembrance and hope. I had volunteered, through work, to be captain of our Relay for Life team. I quickly worked up a PowerPoint presentation with a consultative approach to maximizing our efforts at the Relay for Life event, and distributed it to our team. We then spent the better part of a month fundraising and preparing for the actual event. Since this was my first Relay for Life, or Relay as it’s condescendingly referred to among the veterans, I was not sure what to expect.

My first observation. I was the first person to arrive at the Relay. Either I was given the incorrect time, or the thousands of others were all fashionably late.

My second observation. Many of the teams were comprised of primarily high school students; which, as always, presented an opportunity for unrelenting humor while walking around the track of the local high school. There was always a gaggle of girls standing off to the side probably debating why Bobby was walking around the track with Kim instead of his girlfriend Sarah. Come 2am, Bobby will most likely not be dating Sarah and will probably be curled up in a sleeping bag next to Kim. Sorry Sarah.

My challenges at hand were different from those of my generic high school friend Sarah. As the team captain, I thought it best to lead by example. The one hiccup; I was still suffering from pneumonia and as a consequence, leading by example wasn’t going to be my style. Instead, I sat stationed in my folding chair for most of the evening. When everyone got up dance to Walk it Out, I sat it out. When everyone got up to dance the Electric Slide, I slid my cheeks further into the folding char. And when everyone got up to dance to the Cupid Shuffle I pulled out my camera and took a picture.

Around 5am we started debating politics. Some of the most stimulating conversations I’ve had in years. I only wonder if my pneumonia medication and delirium let me to believe that we were having a real conversation. In reality it was probably no more sophisticated than the gaggle of high school girls.