When I was younger, the first real sport I played was little league football. I had just moved from Alabama the year before, and I thought it'd be something fun to do since all of my friends played, too. However, what I didn't know was that there was a certain weight requirement to be met for every age group before every game. Being that I was partially raised in the South made me realize, at an early age, I was slightly larger than the other boys for reasons I couldn't figure out. Realizing this was a little traumatizing for me. I was ashamed and mostly embarrassed that, during practice, I would have to run five, or 10 extra laps than everyone else to try to make the weight requirement for that week's game, and sometimes, I would miss most of practice. Eighth grade is when everyone started catching up to me and when I leveled out. I was taller, so the weight was becoming more proportionate, and I was able to play most of the games for that season. With all of this circling my mind, I vowed to get myself in shape and work on some other things, physically, for the upcoming season of football in high school. That summer was when I found my first true love of running.
Running is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me. For me, the act of running was, initially, just another workout that I felt like I needed to do. It wasn't until later on that I truly enjoyed running for miles for fun. For a while, though, I saw running as a chore almost, and it was not something I was proud that I needed to do to look like everyone else. Fast forward a couple of months when I was becoming more comfortable with running, I signed up for the track team. I have always been fascinated by this sport, and I couldn't wait to be a part of it. My parents ran track, my brother ran track and was very successful, so naturally, I had to follow suit. Little did I know, this would be the first time I actually began running for fun.
Weeks and days went by where I found myself thinking about track in class, just waiting for the day to be over, so I could go to practice and put my body through this insanely rigorous routine. As I developed more and more skill, I became more and more enticed with the lure of running in circles around that beautiful rubber surface. But, that soon wouldn't be enough for me. My junior year of high school, I signed up for the cross country team, and a new door for the love I was beginning to feel for this sport was set even deeper. There was something about running miles and miles just to see if and how fast I could that just seemed so cathartic to me. Here I am, running like this when, years ago, I couldn't even run a couple of laps without feeling defeated and belittled. Running gave me the confidence I needed to accept myself and the way I look, and it gave me an outlet to release animosity that I would feel about myself whenever I looked into the mirror. And for that, I will always hold on to the lessons running has taught me.
