The end: Saturday party, Sunday shred and Tuesday farewell to Jim.
After leaving the shred place, I took the time to get to the gym's changing room and took a quick shower. Then, I took the bus to the movie theatre in order to finally see "Captain America - the Winter Soldier", a film that I anticipated for such a long time. However, when I got there, I realized that the theatre was full of people! The ticket seller told me that they had run out of tickets for the 7 P.M showing, and if I wanted to see it that day I had to wait until 9 P.M. Having set my mind to go to Ben's place to meet everybody, I told myself: "To hell with that!" and caught another bus home, really frustrated because I had made the trip for nothing.
After getting to school, I took another bus (N) to go to Ben's place. When I got there, it was about 7:40 P.M, one hour earlier than everyone. I was approaching the door to Ben's apartment and about to knock when the door automatically opened!
It turned out that a guest in the house was trying to get to some air and opened the door at the same time I arrived! Talk about coincidences.
As I expected, almost nobody was there yet except the Canadians, who were chilling in the main lobby. I came in, said hi to everyone, and then went to meet Ben and April in Ben's room. I congratulated him again on the victory, and he told me: "Should have been you man!"
At this moment, I felt a mixture of many things, but one stood out the most: shame, sharp and searing, like a blade that cut all the way from my abdomen to my throat. I spent so much time angry about the world and didn't give a dang about anyone else, and there Ben was, telling me that I should have took it instead of him! Fortunately, in that moment, I did the only thing that was right to do: I reassured him that he won deservingly, that he showcased a level that was just amazing in every aspect. I meant every word at that moment, and I still mean every word of it now.
After that, we joined the Canadians discussing the competition. In the middle of the discussion about the Request contest, I blurted out a hypothesis that I had been having about the add system, and some aspect might benefit from some tweaking in order to make it even better. I was glad to see that everyone listened to me about the subject, and took it seriously. How cool was that? These guys were 100x better footbag players than I was, and there they were, listening to an unamed person like me! "This is why the footbag community is among the best in the world!" I remember thinking.
Afterwards, April suggested that we participated in "Cards against Humanity". It was a humorous game, resulting in plenty of laughs from everyone. Unfortunately, I began to experience cramps in both of my Vasti Laterali in my legs and had to drop out from playing to drink some water and ate a banana.
Everybody began to come into Ben's place, and it became very crouded really quickly. Soon, everyone were participating in conversations with one another. It really felt like a great family. I had meaningful conversation with Jon "Outsider" Schneider about the special kind of "hacky sack" (cau) that were usually played in Vietnam, and was discovered by none other than the Peter Irish. Jon is such an amazing person, and a knowledgable one as well. The guy practically knows everything there is to know about the history of footbag, it's just amazing listening to him and ponder on how long the footbag scene has existed.
After that, I had conversations with Boatz, Mikie, and Eric Chan about various things, including schools and degrees, as well as freestyle football. I explained freestyle soccer names to everyone, including the Magellan conservation from footbag, the ""Insert person name here" ATW" naming system in freestyle soccer, and of course the Dragonstall - Flapper mix up. It was a super fun time and we all learned some new things in the end. After that, I said goodbye to everyone to come home and sleep for the night.
Sunday:
I woke up a bit tired, and my leg muscles felt like they had just suddenly been turned into jelly by a spell from an evil witch. Still, I had it in my mind to go shred some more and say goodbye to everyone. So, I packed my things and took the bus to school. I spent a brief 1 hour in the Graduate Exhibition, where some of my Physiology friends were presenting their work, and then headed to Old Main. When I got there, everybody were already shredding, although not very hard, given the fact that everyone were still tired from the previous day. I joined the same circle with Mac and Pimpske and was again mind blown by the insanity of Jim's combos. Mac did some good stuff as well. I couldn't do a lot of things due to my legs already tired from the day before, but still managed to pull off some Pixie combos. I ended the session with some freestyle soccer with Aidan.
After this, the Canadians, the New Yorkers, as well as Nick and everyone else said their good byes. We all congratulated Ivan for such a job well done organizing this huge competition, and then parted ways. However, Jim, Jon, Ivan, Ryan, Marc, and me decided to go to a Chinese restaurant in downtown State College (Big Bowl) to get some food. We had some meaningful conversations, mostly about Game of Thrones and other related materials. Ryan managed to finish both his food and Jim's leftovers. That guy sure have an appetite!
Afterwards, Jon departed on his journey, Ivan and Jim came back to Old Main because Jim forgot something there. Me, Ryan, and Marc walked along College Avenue, talking about Superman and Wonder Woman, as well as how gods viewed the world in a different way than mortals did (I'm not even kidding!
)
I soon separated from everyone else to finally catch the bus to the movie theatre to see "Winter Soldier". The pay off was incredible. I had never watched anything from Marvel that was that good, may be except "the Avengers". The movie returned Captain America to a true superhero instead of being the brooding, loner type that every film nowadays seemed to do, including my beloved "Man of Steel". "Best way to end the day!" I thought.
On Tuesday, we had the last session with Jim. He taught everyone how to do Osis. Afterwards, we all went to the Creamery to get some ice cream and then to East Halls to get some food. Jim told me about the Japanese restaurant that he was running in his hometown, and I promised to come and check out the food if I ever be there. When time to say goodbye came, I couldn't shake the feeling of melancholia inside me. It was like losing a big brother.
The days afterwards were harsh. It wasn't easy going from the amazing footbag life to the normal existence with grading papers and worrying about whiny undergrads. It took me almost 2 weeks to recover from "Post Footbag Meet Disorder".
Easily, this meet was among the best times in my life. Something I would still remember for years to come.
THE END.
Almost 4 Osii in a combo. 
