27/52 John Barrett
27/52 John Barrett
“My experience playing in the 1984 olympics, I guess you could say was a dream come true. As a young boy… I started talking about wanting to be an olympian when I was 11 years of age. Being able to actually realize that dream for me was at the time surreal. You train for things, you dream about things… then all of a sudden you’re there. It was larger than life, everything was literally amazing, except for the fact that we didn’t get the medal we wanted. We ended up coming fourth….. Still burns to this day to be honest.. because when you dream about something and you make it your reality in your head.. to not achieve that when you’re so close, is a painful experience. Looking back on it now from many years past, I revel more in the experience, the relationships that I made, and the memories really are incredible. It was everything I thought it would’ve been and I shared it with some of the best friends of my life who are still some of my best friends to this day. Our group was an exceptionally tight knit group.
When they first told me I was getting inducted into the hall of fame, I burst into tears. Im not a crier, I don’t cry that much. I’ve been running it through my head and I’m like, what’s going on here. I think what it is for me is, it’s a realization that I did something with my life, and I did what I wanted to do, and I pushed it hard enough and long enough to get recognition from my peers. That’s never anything that I’m looking for, but obviously it carries great weight to be recognized. It’s people saying thank you for what you did. What I have received from the world of volleyball is something that I’ll never be able to pay back. I’ve received way more than I have given to the sport.
I’ve got no problem with it, I’m comfortable with it. You have to be able to show who you are, and being vulnerable, asking for help, saying you’re sorry is real strength. You dont have to hide it, you dont have to say tough guys dont cry. That’s not reality. Reality is you feel, and if you have an emotional attachment to something and you can express it. That gives you an even closer bond to the people that you’re involved with.
