EVERYTHING is relative

I'd like to share a thought that I have been wresting with for the past couple of months, the importance of relativity on individual perception. Have you ever wondered how different life would be if you were your dog? your best friend? your child-hood role-model? how about your most-hated enemy? We've all heard the idiom that "before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes." This, can apply to far more than just criticism. Take a second to think about your day or, if you had a less than eventful day, your week. Now answer the following questions as honestly as you can, no need to think long and hard about them, just go with your instinct:

1. What would you say was the best part of your day? How about the worst?

2. Did anything in your day in particular stress you out?

3. Think about a time that you felt productive--what did you do that made you feel that way?

4. Any regrets? Missed opportunities or chances?

To use myself as an example:

1. Best part of my day- well there were 3 bests today. One was getting a part-time job waiting tables at Mellow Mushroom this summer. Two was getting to run with a dude that has turned into one of my best friends, Carter Denne. And three was going to Fleet Feet with Will and getting wetsuits for the triathlon this weekend. The worst part of my day- when i discovered the kayak wetsuits we had rented for the triathlon this morning were more like parachutes and not wetsuits. (unfortunately for the rest of the race Saturday, Will and I were able to find some triathlon wetsuits at Fleet Feet)

2. Organic Chemistry... and when my mom figured out I had taken a shift at work tomorrow instead of going out for dinner with her and her quartet, who are going to be singing competitively in W-S this weekend (Good luck to them!). For those of you who care, i called  my new manager who was very sympathetic and now I am starting Sunday.

3. Two times today-One was when I was able to enter all the data at work this morning right before intervention started AND while I was driving to my interview I was able to get some payroll stuff straightened out. BOOM. Ya, this probably wont make sense to you but thats ok.

4.  I would have been frustrated if I hadn't been able to get out of my shift tomorrow, but fortunately that all worked out and now I will get to join my mom and her singing quartet for dinner. Also, I drove my car an assload today and now I need more gas, which sucks cause I hate buying gas.

Now take some time to consider how someone else might feel about these important parts of your day. In retrospect, your best friend, might not be the best person to use here, because it's more than likely that you and your best friend share many of the same experiences and similar values. But how about someone different, your best friends girlfriend for example? Or maybe branch out even more, a 30 year old single mom with two children? a 16 year old child in an impoverished part of South Africa? 

Let's take a look at my day through the eyes of an impoverished 16 year old:

1. Best- a job is great, unfortunately, I probably cant get a job, because I dont have any shoes, or maybe because I have to take care of my brothers and sisters during the day. I may go for runs, because it is a relatively inexpensive, but spending 50 bucks to rent a wetsuit?!? I might make 50 bucks a month, if I am lucky. Worst- a triathlon is the least of my worries.

2. Organic chemistry? Why would that matter to me? I don't have access to the medicine or doctors.

3. Telephones and computers? 

4. I have bigger things to worry about than buying gas for my car, like the health of my family and if Ill be able to feed my brothers and sisters tomorrow.

Wild to think that things that matter so much to you are seemingly meaningless to others. I have dealt with what I feel is a good deal of stressors recently (from deciding I want to get a PhD, to retaking the GRE, applying to grad schools, deciding where I want to go, finding a place to live, adopting and caring for a puppy with heartworms). In all reality, to be stressed by things like these is quite the privilege. In the hustle and bustle of modern life, its easy to neglect to take a step back and realize where we are. Recently I have been particularly bad at realizing how fortunate I am, neglecting to put things in perspective. If you are reading this, realize you are doing so on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or iphone and how fortunate we are to be able to do so.

Some Things Will Never Change

Well, I almost did it, a full year without posting. Fortunately the recent emergence of a blog by my good friend and training partner John Savage, Savage Sentiments, has inspired me to write a blog post of my own. I guess a good place to start would be to give a quick run down of the major events that have transpired between April 10th of 2012 and now:

1. Last spring and summer marked what was undoubtedly one of the most exciting bike seasons of my career. I attribute my success on the bike to a few things, possibly the largest of which, I basically stopped running. This gave my legs some much needed time to recover and got me out on the bike 6-7 times a week. Also, it is no longer possible for me to leave my door in Winston-Salem without hitting some sort of elevation change, as opposed to Williamsburg where there are two hills in a 50 mile radius. This, with the help of Mountain Khaki's famed rider Jon Hamblen and a fantastic training buddy in med student Steven Vogel, undoubtedly propelled my power up and my weight down. Among the highlights of my 2012 bike racing season were winning the Tour de Moore (Cat 3), a hilly 54 mile road race, and becoming a Cat 2 bike racer. At the end of the summer I entered a good many Pro1/2/3 races, and had some solid finishes.

2. In the Fall I was forced off the bike by an injury and started running again. After 2 years of x-rays and MRI's followed by hearing "I don't know what to tell you" by doctors and physical therapists, time seems to be working its magic. The new class of first years in the Master's program here at Wake brought me a running buddy, Carter Denne. Carter and I spent our lunch hours during the fall and winter, running through the streets of Winston, pushing each other's fitness and even getting in the occasional interval session. Our first big race of the Fall was the Mayberry Half-Marathon, in Mount Airy, NC, where we finished first and second, and both set PR's (I finished second, running a 1:14.59). About a month after I broke 16 minutes and finished 4th in the VA run turkey trot. Every day I give thanks for the fact that I was born with an engine to let me pull off these kinds of miracles.

3. Possibly the biggest thing to happen since last April is finally I have decided on a career path. Never have I been able to say with such affirmation that I know what it is I want to do with my life. Now I can say that it is my goal to be a professor and researcher at a university. To pursue my dream, next year I will be moving to Muncie, Indiana with my wonderful and patient girlfriend, Briana Paxton, and entering into the Doctorate Program of Human Bioenergetics at Ball State University. Here i shall study under Professor Scott Trappe, a world re-known exercise physiologist in the field of muscle physiology.

Currently, I am back to running and biking and even swimming a little. I continue to run with Carter and have found a triathlon training buddy in another first year, Will Combs, a swimmer in high school who started riding bikes during undergrad up at App. In just a little over a week, Will and I will be competing in the Belews Lake Triathlon. This will be my first triathlon in over two years (my last tri was Collegiate Nationals in April of 2011). I really have no expectations, and by that I mean I doubt I will be satisfied with anything much less than a win...some things will never change.

I hope to write here more frequently. It's definitely a liberating outlet. Good luck to all of my friends and fellow athletes competing this weekend and as always, thanks for reading.