To: From: Sent: Subject: ENGLISH PEOPLE DID NOT PROOF READ e rey ps em Sat 10/8/2011 1:05:09 PM I recall specifically seeing my mother and father suspended upside down,themselves surrounded by a crowd of 5000 , all with their hands stretched way above their heads reaching downward, yes, downward towards a bright blue sky. I had pictured this exact scene many times. This time however , it was for real. I was smack in the middle of a very difficult trick, known as the Mc Twist 540, competing as the youngest snowboarder in the 2006 Winter Olympics. I had visualized the pipe, the path along the pipe, the trick and my perfect landing over and over during my waking hours, my sleep and again during my practice. Visualizing my goal had allowed me to correct potential mistakes before they actually occurred. The training had proven successful. Visualization was not the only tool in my training toolbox. THey also included many hours of mental preparation, accompanied by the physical training. It took years of determination, perseverance and daily hard work. Even after a full day of spills, crashes and falls my evenings were necessarily spent seeking sponsors that would support me. The Olympics was merely the culminating event, this came , after my winning many competitions in various World Championships. Along my journey to the Olympics , I had to pay , by earning, my own way, sometimes only a couple of rubles at time. I set aside my aches and pains but continued to visualize the spectators upside down , as I performed the first, of many body flips, and drove on... I am now sitting here at the Clifford Chance Law Office in Paris, where I am working as an intern. In the evening, I now visualize myself being in an amphitheater surrounded by a bouillabaisse of talented students from arund the world. As we listen to lectures by some of Harvard's greatest legal minds I can hear the clicks of the laptop keyboards as my fellow Harvard students refuse to lo