Canadian pride

I joined thousands of other Canadians yesterday in a heart-pumping, flag-waving, beer-quaffing afternoon of Olympic hockey. The game against the U.S. for gold was a nail biter. Just as I was preparing to raise a brown bottle in celebration, the Americans scored with only 25 seconds left in the game.

Now I felt more at ease when Canada had a 2-goal cushion. I could relax. But my time in comfort was fairly short lived and I spent the rest of the time perched on the edge of the couch with my stomach rolling and my mind repeating, "We have to win. We HAVE to win."

I feel the Canadian pride that's grown over the past two weeks - and it makes me feel incredible. I've always celebrated with joy that I'm Canadian. I sported a red Canada sweatshirt years ago (when they were hard to find). Now Canadians from sea to sea wear the red and white in support of our athletes and our country. Our pride of being Canadian shone through, despite the shaky start to the games, to swell into the street-closing display after the men's hockey team won gold.

This Canadian pride used to sit quietly in our hearts until these games. The 2010 Olympics almost gave us all an excuse to stand proud and shout out, "I am Canadian." It didn't happen because we were winning medal after medal, because during the first week of the games, the Own the Podium program officials were lamenting our lacklustre performance. Yet, we average Canadians were proud of our athletes and the incredible efforts they put forth, regardless of where they placed (although we enjoyed celebrating when they did stand on the podium). We were proud of our country and our Olympic games.

Everyone was talking about the Olympics. We bowed our heads in sympathy at the death of the Georgian luger. We raised our hands in triumph when Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold on home soil. We swaggered through the streets along with Jon Montgomery after his golden win, wishing we too could gulp a celebratory pitcher of beer. We looked skyward and said thank you very much at the end of Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue's ice dance performance. And we jumped off the couch with our hands in the air when our Canadian woman and men won Olympic gold in hockey.

Go Canada go!

Today I'm sure I'll suffer Olympic withdrawal. I'll miss flipping on the TV after work every day to catch up on the events and to see how our Canadian athletes are doing. I'll miss the wonderful stories that made me cry (every day!) and made my heart swell with pride. I am proud of our athletes and proud to be Canadian. I hope the pride the game awoke in us lives on.

Tina