Go Time



I can run down Rte 135 and pretend I'm here, right?

It's been a while since my last post, and unfortunately, almost as long since my last run. After the long, gorgeous, meditative beach runs I took down in North Carolina during my brother's college graduation week, I almost couldn't bear to put my feet back down on pavement when I got home. I was also moving and dealing with some crazy transitions at work, so it was easy to make excuses and push things to the next week. 

No more!

Last weekend I was honored to attend UMass Dartmouth's graduation to celebrate one of  my two college students graduating with the class of 2012. This particular student has worked harder than ANYONE I know to get where she is today; she fought through a tough freshman year due to her lack of preparation in high school, stuck with an economics major even though professors told her she wouldn't make it, and overloaded on credits her entire senior year to ensure that she would graduate on time. Even though she gave me several heart attacks this year, I could not be more proud. My marathon fundraiser will be to help Bottom Line grow, ensuring that more low-income and first-generation students nationwide will have a college graduation day.

June is a hopeful time in our office, as our high school seniors graduate and begin planning their college orientations, designing their dorm rooms, and imagining what the next stage of their lives will look like. It also marks the beginning of the College Access process for our next class of high school students. It seems fitting for me to begin the serious part of my training just as our bright-eyed high school juniors are beginning to plan their college lists. They aren't yet jaded by the numbers, the deadlines, or the paperwork, they come only asking that we help them reach a goal. Our students, who come in to their first meetings expressing varying levels of confusion and panic, leave understanding two things: that they are going to college, and that we will help them break down each step it will take to get them there. I imagine my journey toward Marathon Monday will line up well with their journey to College Commitment Day: May 1st. Today we are idealistic, yet apprehensive, choosing a program we think will help us get where we want to be and hoping that we can get there. By September, we'll be cursing the amount of work still left to do and feeling that spring is endless months away. Winter will be the hardest time, as the completion of one goal will turn quickly to beginning work on another. Deadlines come hard and fast during months that we would rather curl up and sleep. March and April will be a mad dash to the finish--regretting unfinished work that should have been done during winter months and frantically working toward the end goal we could have sworn was a few more months away.

The key for all of us is to find something to drive us through the days we would rather scream than take one more baby step in the right direction. Here, I'm hoping I have a leg up on my high school students. I get to go to work every day and be reminded why the organization I'm supporting is so critically important. Every day will come with a reminder of the immense importance of higher education for my students. Still, I'm going to need an online training calendar to keep me honest, and plenty of post-its above the bed to remind me that I WANT to go to the gym. 

Training for a half marathon in September starts in 2 weeks. It's go time.