Rambaud | The second swimming competition I participated in was the United States Olympic Swimming Trials.

As a swimming fan, I shouldn’t have been there. I didn’t know how team numbers worked and I couldn’t name most of the people on last year’s team, other than Katie Ledecky.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have much fun. Yes, I knew that competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials was a great and privileged experience. But I had never really been a fan of swimming. I cheer for Team USA at the Olympics, but that’s true for everyone during an Olympic year like this. I was raised on traditional American sports like football and basketball. Sports like swimming are way out of my comfort zone.

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As I said, I knew next to nothing about swimming before the trials, and there was one thing in particular that I didn’t know: the size of the swimming community. The preliminaries and finals drew over 10,000 fans; the final on June 19 drew 22,205 fans. Lucas Oil Stadium was flooded with people on every corner, eager to buy Team USA merchandise and get a good view of the pool.

And with that many fans, the atmosphere was electric. In the final on June 18, Regan Smith broke the world record in the 100-meter backstroke. I’ll never forget the cheers from the crowd when the Jumbotron revealed she had broken the world record. The entire stadium stood up, filled with the same hope that she would do it. And then, a day later, I found myself screaming “Go!” at the top of my lungs as I watched Penn’s Matt Fallon swim to first place and break the American record in the 200-meter breaststroke. Before that, I hadn’t even met the guy.

I’ve spent the last few days trying to condense this feeling into one word, but I can’t.

I felt the same way my sophomore year when I went to Princeton for Penn’s football season finale. Hopes of an Ivy League title were gone by halftime, but the satisfaction and euphoria of watching Trey Flowers walk for that title-clinching touchdown for Princeton are etched in my memory. A year later, my friends and I were jumping up and down in the stands at the Palestra, convinced that Penn’s men’s basketball team was going to beat Villanova. I skipped nursing ethics class to go to that game (sorry, Dr. Perlman).

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There’s something beautiful about seeing those moments live and in person. That moment when you realize you’re about to see something special. Because even if it wasn’t on the field, you were there. You were the one sitting there with your stomach in knots. Or you were the one asking your friend why everyone was so excited. And soon enough, that moment becomes a memory that stays with you long after the venue charges your bank account for the ticket.

There is a magical value to watching live sports that is lost in a world of streaming and overpriced tickets. If you get the chance, go see that game or match. Even if you are not very familiar with the sport, step out of your comfort zone. Take a few minutes to understand the basics, whether it is through Google or a friend. You never know what might become your favorite sport to watch or if you are about to go to a game that you will remember for the rest of your life.

There’s a reason we’re so drawn to the Olympics every four years, why we’re so interested in certain sports once every four years. We yearn for the extraordinary, for celebration and triumph, for a moment to remember.

But you don’t have to wait every four years. You can experience great sporting moments at every level, in every sport. You just have to seize the opportunity and see it live.