Roger Federer

I saw him. In person. I breathed the same air he was. I could hear him talking under his breath. I waved at him. I watched him win an easy match.

He was beautiful, and one of my dreams have been fulfilled.

The sad thing was, had it not been for my friend Tana, I wouldn't have seen him at all. You see, we bought night passes for this tournament. Roger's match was the last day match. There was plenty of room in the stadium, so we thought they would let us in anyway. But the first guy we went to said, "OH, so sorry, you can't go in until 7:00." My heart dropped. I had come so close to seeing this paragon of tennis greatness in the flesh. Just on the other side of these great walls of the stadium was an icon of tennis genius and complete kindness. And because this gate keeper thought rules were rules, I was going to miss seeing Roger. With tears burning my eyes I dropped my shoulders and headed over to watch some other tennis on lesser courts. Tana, being a super hero disguised as a mild mannered doubles partner made this simple suggestion. "Let's try another gate." Genius I tell you. Sheer genius. So we went to the other side of the stadium, confidently handed the gate keeper our ticket and he said, "These are for the night match, but there is plenty of room in this match, so go on in." My heart leaped for joy like it hasn't in a long time.

I climbed the steps of the stadium, looked down on the court, and there he was.

Roger Federer...I almost cried.