the bar.

"you cant' look at the bar because then you will aim for it. you have to look past it,"

bobbie curran, a pole vaulter from a local high school, said this to me while talking about pole vaulting. i don't think she realized how profound it sounded or how perfect it was for her story. bobbie decided in her senior year to start pole vaulting, something she hadn't done since grade school. her school doesn't have a vaulting pit so she travels across town to another school to practice. her personal best height is 8 feet. coincidentally that height was among the top two in her region qualifying her to go to state. the catch is that the opening height for state is 8 feet 6 inches.