*from Steph* hey, everyone!

Hey! So, as Atha mentioned, my name is Stephanie Shih, and I will be a guest author for this blog. I'm 18 years old and will be moving into Barnard College at Columbia University as soon as I get home from Beijing in August after watching the Olympics (and I'll be writing about the atmosphere and about the Olympics while I'm there). I live in NJ, and practice at the New York Table Tennis Club- only the best club in all of NY ;) - in Flushing [Queens], NY. I've been playing competitive table tennis since 2001, and I was on the US team from 2005-2007, on the US Girls' Cadet Team in 2005, and, as Atha mentioned, on the US Junior Girls' Team in 2006 and 2007. Playing table tennis has brought so much to my life. The best part has definitely been going to tournaments and training camps around the country and around the world- I've been to Canada, Dominican Republic, Sweden, Spain, and China for training and tournaments, and have met and chilled with people from the US to Australia.

Anyway, table tennis isn't my only favorite sport- I LOVE baseball (die-hard, hard core Yankees fan) and tennis (Djokovic and Ivanovic fan). I like almost every sport, really, because, as an athlete myself, I can relate to how the pressure of competition feels in some way or another. I just happen to find that baseball (yes, baseball) and tennis have the most in common with table tennis, and the comparisons are fascinating. I'll be writing about the connections between table tennis and baseball, and the similarities and glaring differences between table tennis and tennis. Hopefully, for any of you baseball buffs, this blog will be interesting and get you into our tt world ;)

Okay, so it's back to the Yankees game for me, and back to Atha for you. See ya!