Remembering That Time in Europe: Reflections a Week Later
by Dan Ryan '09

The bags have been unpacked, the gifts have been given out and the photos have been shared and of course, posted online. When telling the tales of our trip to friends, family and co-workers, it seems tremendously difficult to put into words just how meaningful our sojourn was. I cannot continue to talk about our trip until I give thanks to the people who made this all possible. I want the readers to know that this expedition was a combination of a vision by Coach Peter Bourque and continuing hard work and support from his wife, Anne Bourque. I still have a hard time believing that they made it happen. I also want a section in this blog for my parents, and everyone else's parents who let the college kids travel to Europe, who may have had to constantly refresh the bank accounts (a chore that college parents probably have gotten a little fed up with even BEFORE we went), and supported us throughout the year as we planned for such an adventure. THANK YOU BOURQUES And THANK YOU FAMILIES.

After tough practices, morning sprints, or spirited games, we always get into a huddle at the conclusion. We have many ways of "breaking it down" as we call it. Some times you will hear our Catawba Indians yell "Indian Pride" or "Head, Heart, Hustle, Victory," but sometimes, we break it down with a chant of "Family Forever." The reason I bring this up is that I feel like had we all gotten through customs at the same time and stood together before departing, our coach would have made us huddle together, put our hand in the air and "break it down" with "Family Forever" because that's the kind of trip it was. All it took was a week and a few days, families and friends, coaches and players coming together, and at the end, we were and in my mind still are a big, happy traveling lacrosse family.

Now that this is over, many of us prepare for college again and of course, the parents have to go back to work. Watch out Florida Public Schools because former laxer William Reedy is going to be great (He actually started his job as an English teacher in Florida four days after getting back from our trip). Anyways, this blog has been great and I look forward to getting together with my team in 20 years and hearing "you were that guy who would do a blog" or something like that. Thank you Catawba College for letting me post this on your website. I apologize because I know I left out a lot (my writing is not so good that I could write about everything we did on this trip and keep an interested audience…if I did at all), but the experience of trying to was great. Since the day, I began writing blogs for posting, I knew it would be tough to end. So I told myself that I will just end the way Coach's voicemail ends. If you have ever call and got his voicemail you know exactly what I am talking about ......... and GO (CATAWBA) INDIANS!!!

I look forward to seeing everyone at our games this year and thanks again to Catawba College for letting me document our trip on the website.

P.S. I have not found away to work this into the blog, but I wanted to give a shout out to Tom Sutton, Catawba Class of '62, whom we just happened to bump into in North Wales!