People I "Know"

Only two days until the contest! Anyone else getting excited?   J

The thing I’m looking forward to most is just having the chance to reconnect with people.  Generally, the competitors and others involved are hard-working, dedicated, goal-oriented, competitive-in-a-friendly way kind of people.  I’m looking forward to cheering for many of them.

But this year, as I was going over the list of applicants, there were three names in particular that got my attention.

I was born and raised in this area, so I’ve seen first-hand how much things have grown and changed.  20 years ago, if I went to the grocery store or to see a movie, it was pretty much a guarantee that I’d see people I know. 

This is no longer the case.  So many people have moved here that being a native makes me something of a rarity.  (Bodybuilder Hubby is a native too.  He and I were born in the same hospital where his dad and our kids were also born.  He and I went to the same high school too, though he graduated before I got there so we didn’t meet until years later.)

The town where we live now is practically a suburb of the bigger city.  (I still hesitate to use the word “city,” since it’s never going to be that big, but we are finally getting a Nordstrom’s Rack, which totally counts for something!)

But the area where we live now used to be really rural, surrounded by farmland.  I had a friend in grade school who lived here, and we didn’t like having slumber parties at her house because it was too far out to get a pizza delivered.

Things have changed.

But some things haven’t.

Three of the competitors new this year are people who I’ve either known since they were little or whose families I have some connection with, going back to those more-like-a-small-town days.

#1 – There is a Figure competitor who is married to a guy I’ve known since he was five.  He was in the same frat as my brother in college.  And his older brother, the competitor’s brother-in-law, was my first “boyfriend” when I was 7.  We even held hands one time.

#2 – One of the Bikini competitors comes from a family I’ve known for a long time.  Her dad ran the sound booth at the church for Bodybuilder Hubby's and my wedding.   Her mom is (was?) a teacher I worked with several times.  And her brother was one of my fifth grade students back when I was a 22-year-old, just-starting-out teacher.  Her mom was always really pretty, so it fits that the daughter is now a Bikini competitor.

#3 – There is a new bodybuilder who I have known since he was a toddler.  His brother and my brother were good friends in grade school – in the same class, on the same little league team, if I remember correctly.   Being the mature older sister, I was asked on several occasions to babysit for the now-competitor and his brother.  I remember making a fort in their living room out of blankets. 

He’s the one I think I’m least likely to recognize.  It’s hard enough to recognize someone you only knew as a small child two decades ago.  It’s harder still to recognize anyone when his or her face is covered in Dream Tan.

(On the flip side, there are a bunch of competitors I only know from contests.  If I ever saw them without the fake tan stuff, and wearing normal clothes, I’d probably walk right by and not have a clue who they were!)

But with this competitor, if I do recognize him, I’m pretty sure I’m going to greet him by saying something like, “Hi, you probably don’t remember me, but I used to change your diapers.”

Yup.  This is going to be fun.