Olympics 2010: Uniting the community

The weeks leading up to the Olympics, the streets of Surrey, British Columbia,  were dull and everywhere you looked everyone was busy minding their own business,  whether it’s work, or for students like me, panicking as the date for midterms start creeping up on us, or final projects that seem to be due all too soon.  Where’s the sense of community we should have been sharing?  We don’t have any common goal to talk about, so we avoided each other as we try to finish our last minute work.  A lacking sense of community divides us up.  Yet, the day the Olympic torch came to us, an unusual incident occurred: the Surrey community came together.  Coming together as strangers, we banded together cheering for the same reason: the symbol of the arrival of the Olympics.  Despite literally bumping into complete strangers in our excitement, we all shared smiles of pure joy and happiness.  The midterms were forgotten, work no longer seemed quite as important, and shedding all the stress and worry, we shone as a community, as one, to cheer on our country, to cheer on everything there is to cheer about, for the Olympics is coming.  It’s an amazing phenomenon I have the privilege of witnessing firsthand; a community united sporadically and everyone sharing carefree smiles like the closest friends.  As a student from SFU Surrey, I can confirm that many of us have put aside our homework for a while to join in the fun on this once in a lifetime event.  When the Olympics arrived in Surrey, some students reportedly joined in to watch and cheer on the torch as it passed through Surrey while others chose to enjoy the breathtaking fireworks instead.

Not surprisingly, with all the publicity and widespread events as well as a two week long break we SFU students get the privilege of enjoying while the Olympic craze rages at an all-time high, many within the Surrey community have already visited Olympic venues such as the skating rink down in Robson Square or the events occurring in Downtown and LiveCity. 

Using the technology we currently have to the full potential, reaching out to others, and organizing a worldwide event, and getting the community’s approval is not without its hardships but it’s more than worthwhile; the Olympics has not only managed to create a closely knit community within Surrey, but in the entire world as well, as we all held our breaths each time an elusive gold medal is about to be won within our respective countries.  Seeing such unity in a place I usually see only people working as individuals, I feel extremely proud of our country to be able to bring such a strong sense of community. Despite the Olympics having just been finished, I’m sure this event will continue having a long lasting impact on the majority of us, no matter where we’re from.