Why Do You Run Then? Practice, Day After Day, Adding Mile After By: Amanda Westfall Mile
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Featuring: Amanda Westfall, Ashley Schmidt, Kaitlyn Duthie, Ian Potter, Laurel Payne, Tess DeFlyer, and Victoria Cranwell Editor: Kaitlyn Duthie, Katie Ebersole table. This was the typical situation for most people during the fall and spring, well, except that one group. The cross country runners. Us normal people despised them. They always strutted their short shorts and professional sneakers on this gym day. They enjoyed themselves a little too much on the day of the mile. They thought they were so cool while we stood there thinking they were idiots. Little did I know, I would soon become one of those idiots with the short shorts and the expensive sneakers. My idiocy began in August of my freshmen year. At that point, I was beginning to think maybe I was crazy. There was practice Monday through Saturday at nine am. Sure that does not sound too bad, if you played soccer or football. This though, this was hell. No longer did I take the mile in gym class harshly. I would give anything to run a mere mile. My running now consisted of a mile warm up and cool down, with a three to four mile run in between. After the second day, I knew there was something wrong with me. I thought to myself, “people don’t enjoy running this much” and “no one would ever enjoy this pain”. Yet I kept going back to Why do you run then? practice, day after day, adding mile after By: Amanda Westfall mile. By the middle of the season our intensity had doubled. I was tired, sore, and complained about all the running I I used to hate it, just like did. People would ask me, “Why do you everyone else did. The mile. The run then?” At first I did not have an dreaded mile. One gym class a year, answer. Sometimes I would say it was designed to test your ability to run (or something to do. Other times I would lack thereof). Once first period gym ran respond that it kept me in shape. it, everyone knew about it by the Finally, after the two-hundredth person following period and people began asked me this, I finally found the true frantically writing excuse notes with answer. I liked it. I had officially forged signatures. Whether it is the tired become one of those idiots and the funny aspect, getting sweaty, or the heat of the thing was I was happy about it. track, not one gym class enjoys it. The mile just seemed…so long. Lap after lap “Lap after lap on the track, the on the track, the word “mile” became word “mile” became almost like almost like a swear word. If you said it, a swear word.” you would not be spoken to at the lunch Before running, I had never been did not know what to do with myself; all so happy about doing something since I I wanted to do was run. During this time, started dancing. This surprised me the mile day in gym came. At the track, because dancing seemed so different people complained about having to run from running. Running was sweaty, the whole mile while I stood against the muddy, and unflattering while dancing fence complaining that I could not run was graceful, beautiful, and full of poise. that one mile. I would have done For many people, there is nothing anything to be running those four laps. beautiful about coming home from a From that point on, I worked hard at race covered in mud and sweat and in physical therapy and quickly recovered. pain. However, I thought it was. I had As soon as I was cleared, I began my come to love mud. Which I will admit is summer training for cross country. My weird, but coming home from a race life finally got its missing piece back. covered in mud made me happy. It Now my friends did not have to listen to showed I had worked hard and finished me complain and my family was free of the race strong. The more I ran, the more my moodiness. I was back to my happy I enjoyed it. I was beginning to go out place, running mile after mile. for runs to relieve all my stress or just It is funny how something you because. I was not running because I had once hated can become something you to anymore. I was running just for the cannot live without. I used to dread heck of it. The two things that make me running the mile in gym class. Now really happy about running are my there is nothing stopping me from racing Sunday runs and the races. There is three miles. I really have become one of nothing better than an eight mile run on those idiots my gym class refers to, but a great Sunday afternoon. It is perfect I'm okay with it. Sure they think we are (and yes that is something my gym class odd because we get excited when Nike would find crazy…eight miles). Running makes a new running shoe. We also have the races also brings out the best of me. enough race t-shirts to last us for over a Everything about them gives me a huge month, but that is who we are. Crazy burst of energy. Twenty minutes of full cross country runners. That is what I out running, exhaustion, guts, and mud love being. is pure bliss for me. There is hardly anything that can keep me from smiling Education…What’s That? after finishing a race. By: Ashley Schmidt Running found a way to put me in a good mood and I did not want that Since the age of four I have been to ever go away. Unfortunately though, told that something by the name of it did and I learned how much running “education” would lead me to a fulfilling meant to me. It was more than I ever career, which I had hoped would one day thought possible. During my sophomore be a job at Tops, possibly working as a year, I injured my knee and running had cashier. At the time, I had no idea what I to take a backseat in my life. The doctor was getting myself into. told me I could not run for two months, My first year of school, a place possibly longer if I needed surgery. I where I apparently got an “education,” was devastated. The thirty minute car was rather fun. Kindergarten is what ride home I spent crying. Running had they called it, and all we learned to do become a huge part of my life and now it was how to color (inside the lines, of was going to be missing for the next two course), count to ten, recite the alphabet, months. I entered a melancholy mood. I and interact with other children without screaming or biting. As my schooling taken years to finally realize. The reason went on, it got more and more difficult. for all of this schooling is success. Eventually, I was learning how to spell, Grades determine how successful add, subtract, multiply, divide, and the you will eventually be, and are given by geography and history of the world. the teachers to rank you and let you Sixth grade was the year that I began to know how well, or poorly, you are doing wonder what the point of all of this in a class. Personally, I believe that schooling was. Yes, I needed to know grades cause many problems in school. how to read, write, and do simple math, Students are constantly sharing grades but why did I need to know all about with each other, which often leads to one ancient Mesopotamia? Why must I know or more students feeling as if they have that some animals reproduce asexually? not amounted to enough. Do not get me I was perplexed by this, but I was only a wrong, I have been an ‘A’ student for as sixth grader, so what did I know? long as I can remember, but compared to others, that is nothing. In my current "Education's purpose is to algebra class, I can not break a ninety on replace an empty mind with an any of my tests. No matter how hard I open one." try, I just always make those stupid mistakes that could have been avoided ~Malcolm Forbes by just taking my time. Otherwise, I simply forget how to do one of the questions. Upon my arrival to high school, I soon learned that other students had “Yes, I needed to know these questions too. My fellow peers began asking teachers, “When will we how to read, write, and do ever use this?” This question was mainly simple math, but why did I need asked during math class. While learning to know all about ancient how to graph the equation y=2csc(x)-1, Mesopotamia?” multiple students shouted out “Why do I even need to know this? It’s not like I’ll Grades are meant to allow you to ever use it.” The teacher gave one of see how well you are doing in a class, those infamous responses, such as “Stop but all they really do is make you feel asking that!” or “You’ll see this on the like you are not doing well enough. Why Regents exam in June.” All of the is it that an eighty or above are the only students knew that this was just another numbers in the grading system that are way of saying that we will never use it considered “good”? Some students try as after we take the Regents, unless we hard as they possibly can and get at least decide to become a math teacher or a seventy, which I think is excellent.