I'm Not Crying, I Just Have the Paralympics In My Eye

I wanted to write a sort of conclusion to my weeks and weeks of Sochi posts before I write the obligatory blogger life update (which will, of course, revolve entirely around Sochi), but I'm not entirely sure how to do it. So I'm just going to kind of word vomit and hope something intelligible happens. Adventurous! Yay!

So I was texting with Amanda on Monday night after Dancing with the Stars, and we were both raving about how well Meryl, Charlie and Amy did (gooooo Team USA!). We, like the rest of the world, were blown away by how AMAZING Amy was, and Amanda mentioned how she thought the judges were going to cry. I responded, "Uhhhh I've been crying for the entire Paralympics, so I don't blame them!"

Seriously though. All it takes is the slightest glimpse of anything Paralympic-related and I have to take a deep breath and swallow back the tears. It's kind of absurd, actually. Especially the medal ceremonies. Don't even get me started. But I do want to point out some images that are now among my favorite ever.

Alpine skier Mark Bathum and his guide Cade Yamamoto. [x]

I talked about visually impaired athletes and their guides as one of the reasons you should watch the Paralympics, and holy cow, this picture. This. picture.

...Yep, just sat here for a solid five minutes trying to figure else what to say about it. There are no words. Just a more or less perpetual lump in my throat.

Equally as tear-jerking is Stephanie Jallen, an adorable but totally bad-ass 18-year-old alpine skier with only one arm and one leg (and now two Paralympic bronze medals). She shouted to herself through all her runs down the mountain, coaching herself through it, and I'll never forget her reaction to winning her first medal. Someone had given her a phone (I'm assuming to call family at home), and she doubled over, sobbing into it. "I got bronze! I got a medal!" (I'm sitting here getting weepy just writing about it.)

And THEN she did this on the podium.

[x]

[x] [x]

If you don't think this is everything that's good in the world, we can't be friends because I'm pretty sure you have no soul. Juuuuust saying.

While I saw significantly less of the Paralympics than I did of the Olympics, what I did see 100% made me a believer. And please, if you like a good ceremony, watch the Paralympic Closing Ceremony. I laughed. I cried (yep, shocker). I was inspired. I was in awe. And I often had no idea what the hell was going on. In other words, it was exactly what a closing ceremony should be!

[x]

As sad as I am so see the Paralympics go, I'm extremely glad I can go back to being an emotionally stable adult human being. It's time for my usual mild cynicism to slap some sense back into me, if for no other reason than to give my tear ducts a freaking break already. But I'm so, so glad these Paralympics were such a success, because I happily look forward to all the tears in my future during Rio in 2016.