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Perspective: The Long Run

For the second year, we're turning this week’s Perspectives segments over to Breja Fink's A.P. Language and Composition class at Beloit Memorial High School. 

I’ve been running cross country for years now. Along the 5,000-meter courses, I run through quite beautiful wooded trails. However, my focus is always intently on the finish line. How I can get more in the zone, more focused on each minute detail that can help propel me there faster. 

But why do I do this?

So that when I’m done, I can look at my time and feel like I’ve accomplished something.

It also gives me a chance to experiment with new techniques and strategies, because if they don’t work, there’s always another race. I can learn from each race I run. The disposability of the races themselves gives me the freedom to try new things.

Life also has a finish line. It is the only finish line that I will ever cross and not be able to look at my time when I’m done. Not be able to reflect on how I did.

I won’t be able to later think about how nice the air felt, or how the trees swayed in the breeze, or how the birds chirping gave me a sense of harmony. 

Because the finish line is final.

So I approach this kind of race very differently. I wouldn’t be intently focused on the finish line, or how I can expedite my arrival, or the push to get to the finish. Because when I’m done, I’ll have nothing to reflect on. I’d have missed all of the divine beauty that was surrounding me, because I was so hyper focused on reaching that one, final line.

I would stop to smell the roses. I would bask in the rays of the sun, be in awe of the colors of the fruits and berries, and be thankful for everyone I met along the way. I could never stop, and I could never turn back. Life always pushes forward, life always catches up to you. I would have to continue running, and pushing forward, to ensure that life doesn’t catch up to me too quickly.

But my focus would be different. I would be overjoyed that I was even running that race in the first place. That I was ?alive.

I would savor that race in such a way, that when I was in the dash of the last 200 meters, I would be ready to cross the finish line, feeling that I had appreciated and enjoyed and loved. I would be running towards the finish, not for glory, but to be thankful.

I’m Jack Johnson, and that is my perspective.

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