Running with Heart

My name was missing from the list. All my friends had made the cheer-leading team. But somehow my name was not there. I felt lost and embarrassed. Knowing that next year would bring a new round of try-outs, I began practicing routines on my own, hoping to become a cheerleader the next year. But my dad suggested that I get involved in running track — just to try it out for a year. I had always been the fastest kid to run a mile in gym class, so I figured that I might as well sign up for running for just one season.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In the first race on the track team, I took the last place. Race after race, I continued to place last and I felt my lungs burning from the effort. I wanted to quit, feeling like a failure. But my dad reminded me that once you are committed to something, you should always follow through. So I finished my first track season, placing last in every race.

The next year came. Although running was not a popular activity, like cheer-leading was at our school, I signed up again to run the long-distance races. I wanted to challenge myself. Within one year, I became the fastest female cross-country runner on our school’s team. A few years later, I placed 3^rd in the Ohio State meet. Not only that, but I was offered an athletic scholarship for college.

Classmates may have laughed at me for choosing running over cheer-leading, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t running track to be cool or to prove anything to anyone else. Running made me proud of who I was. When I chose to be a runner, I chose to be true to myself. We all make that choice every day — we can be who we were born to be or we can simply follow the crowd. For me, I am happiest to be...just me.