Runner's High

Runner's high can strike when you least expect it. You can be in a good mood or a crummy mood, having a great run or struggling to put one foot in front of the other. For me, it all comes down to what I'm thinking about as I'm running, and often happens when I forget that I'm running altogether. I get the chills, my whole body feels electric, and I feel like I could keep going forever. Something clicks in my brain and, for a moment, everything I'm doing just makes sense. 

I think we can experience a sort of runner's high in our daily lives, as well, where we forget about all the crap we're putting up with and have a moment of clarity. My work, for instance, is extremely demanding--months of back to back meetings, frank conversations with stubborn teenagers, worrying that deadlines won't be met or that the outcomes won't be what we want them to be. This spring, however, I experienced two bouts of runner's high.

Every April, we sit at our desks, as apprehensive and nervous as our students who sit by their mailboxes, waiting to hear about all of their acceptances and denials. On a relatively quiet evening this year, a screaming phone call came in from one of my students--she had been accepted to Brown. She kept updating me throughout the next couple days, adding eight more schools to the list. She was beside herself with excitement, but was still waiting to meet with me to find out which of her options she could afford. I'm happy to say that this particular student, pictured below, will be graduating debt-free from the Harvard University class of 2016. She is the first student from her high school to ever be admitted to Harvard, and I have no doubt that she will take full advantage of every opportunity available to her on campus.  

We at Bottom Line are a sometimes skeptical and often realistic bunch. To literally watch a student's dreams come true in front of my eyes was one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences I have had thus far. It reminds me why I constantly make exceptions for students who need to come in late in the evening, as this student often did. It increases my drive to make sure students feel they are clearly articulating their voices and their stories in the writing they submit. Most of all, it reinforces the fact that the students we work with really need us. They have big dreams, and they come to our office to get honest advice about how to make those dreams come true. After slogging through so many late nights, Saturday appointments, and so much higher education red tape, I experienced runner's high. I have found a new pep in my step as I have begun my meetings with the high school class of 2013.

Some of you may know that we restructured Bottom Line's programs at the start of the fiscal year, which meant that I had to hand off my nearly 50 college students to a new counselor this month. However, before the big transition, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing two of my students graduate from college--one from Assumption College, and one from UMass Dartmouth. Both completed school in four years, and both overcame significant academic and/or personal challenges to get where they are today. Though my work with college students had previously been overwhelmingly frustrating and occasionally humorous, it meant so much to be able to stand with one of my students after her commencement, shake hands with her 

parents, and honestly tell her how proud I was of her accomplishments. She never took no for an answer from the administration at school, always asked for clarification when she was struggling to understand class concepts, and never made excuses for poor performance. She knew what she had to do to graduate in four years, and she fought tooth and nail to get there on time, often overloading on credits and worrying the heck out of me. An economics major and international business minor, she sets an example for the members of her family and for all of our younger students who aren't sure if they can make it. 

I look back on the hours I spent with both of these ladies, remembering late nights in the office obsessing over the word choice of a conclusion sentence, or the panicked phone calls I took the week before college commencement when it seemed like summer school was a distinct possibility. In the past two years, I've had nights I lost sleep over specific students, left countless voicemail messages that went unanswered, pulled my hair out over big decisions I was waiting to hear back on. But thanks to these two students and many like them, some days I can forget about the stress and realize the value of my own hard work. A runner's high.