Bryan wins second place at the State Special Olympics games at Penn State.

“I made STATES”!, Bryan exclaimed with a cry. He learned this a few weeks ago and was over-the-moon excited by this news. For two weeks he trained with another coach half an hour away so that he could go with him to Penn State. This university is always the site of the Summer Games thanks to the endorsement by JoePa (Joe Paterno) and his wife, Sue , many years ago.

Last Thursday the team left during a cool rain from the Bensalem area at 6:00 a.m. It was tough going when you live a distance from the training site. But he and a bus full of other athletes took off on time. Once they arrived in Happy Valley, they disembarked onto the field to hit the ground running, literally, with competitions for the rest of the day. Friday and Saturday saw other events for all athletes. Fortunately, the brown bag lunch was consumed by the competitors on the long trip North so they were ready for action upon arrival.

Phones are discouraged at the games and we were fearful that Bryan’s I-phone might “get legs and walk”, but I knew all was well when he texted me the selfie (below)of him outside his dorm room. His roommate, from lower Bucks, and he had been friends since they were little guys. “Well”, I thought, “he looks happy”, even though I couldn’t’ see the color of the medals around his neck in the photo.

When he arrived at our house that Saturday night around 9:30, he was pooped. His face was downcast and, of course, I cut to the chase. “What’s the matter, buddy?” I asked. “I let you guys down.” he said dejectedly. “Why, hon?” “Because I didn’t bring home the gold. Now I can’t go to the USA games in Minnesota.” I felt badly since I had stressed (as a motivating tool) that he needed to get at least one gold medal in order to qualify for the 2026 USA games in Minneapolis. This was the first time a coach had ever sent me the application for that honor and when I asked Bryan if he would be interested in going he was thrilled to be considered. Dreams dashed, we parents quickly let Bryan know that it was just an honor to go to States and medal in ANYthing. The awards finally emerged from the backpack reluctantly. He had received a silver, bronze and an 8th place ribbon. Ribbons hold absolutely no allure for Bryan. His events? 100 and 200 meter race walk and the shotput, his weakest event. He was disappointed he couldn’t do the 4X100 relay with his team. But he was an interloper on the Lower Bucks team. Only one other boy from the Central Bucks team went with Bryan. The relay teams were already set.

Tired from a weekend of watching my 2-year-old and 6-month-old grandsons, I listened with bleary eyes as for ONE HOUR Bryan regaled us with tales from the games. It was 11:00 when he was done with his vivid description of his weekend. I actually felt much better hearing all that had transpired over those three days. How they went to the creamery for ice cream (a tradition), his new airconditioned dorm room, the silliness he and his roommate concocted together. How his roommate was a “Chick Magnet” and was constantly flirting with the girls. (I think Bryan was a bit envious of roomie’s prowess in that arena!) They even made up a song together which they sang the whole weekend.

Last year he traveled all the way north to Penn State only to have to turn around when they were five minutes away due to the hazardous orange air caused by the Canadian wild fires. They were in a bus for seven hours just to eat a brown bag lunch together. Not much fun!

So, even though the gold didn’t come home this time, Bryan had a fun, memorable time away on his own. The Big Man on Campus. Hanging out with a friend and partying with the best of them. What more could one wish for, really?