Andrea Chen

“I was surfing my high school page one day and found a video of dragon boat; that’s when I fell in love with the sport! I thought it was such a cool and intense sport and really wanted to try it out.
In my senior year of high school, my high school team competed at the youth race at Lake Merced and we wanted to place so badly! The feeling of leaving all your heart and effort out there on the water is one I will never forget. We were so close to getting where we hoped to be and I remember huddling with all the seniors in a small circle and all of us bawling our eyes out.

I think it was at that point we realized that our time together was coming to an end and that time truly is fleeting, but the emotions that day made the race so vivid. It’s a memory I reflect on often to remind me that it’s important to be present in the moment.”

[Andrea Chen/(陳蓉蓉 (San Jose, CA, USA), coach and paddler on UCLA Dragon Boat, ex-paddler on USA national team.]

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