I grew up playing different sports. From age two to twelve I did dance, specifically ballet and tap. I did a year of baseball when I was nine, only because my dad was the coach. From the age of twelve to fifteen years old I took tae kwon do.

During my freshman year in high school, my friends talked me into joining the track and field team. This was something that I honestly had no interest in, or had ever given a thought to in the past, mainly because at the time I had been extremely busy training towards getting my first-degree black belt in tae kwon do (which any martial arts student knows is an extremely big commitment). But after much persuasion by my friends, I decided to give it a try. How hard could it be?

The first day of track practice came and I was very nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I really didn’t like running at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I could run, I just hadn’t fallen in love with it yet, like I eventually would. So when it came to picking what events we wanted to do, I decided to try the field part of track and field. For those of you that don’t know, that is shot put and discus. Shot put is a heavy metal ball, about the size of a softball, that gets thrown and the distance is measured and whoever throws it the furthest wins. Discus is almost like a Frisbee, except it's smaller and heavy, and it has to get thrown the same way that the shot put does. I don’t know what made me think this was a good match for me. I’m a very petite girl, and the people that were doing shot and disc were a lot bigger than me. This was a bit intimidating, but me being me, I didn’t let this get me down. I liked the challenge, and I wanted to prove to everybody that size didn’t matter and that I could do it. Over the course of the track and field season, I practiced and practiced. I eventually got better but was still nowhere as good as those around me.

Fast-forward four years, to the summer in between senior year of high school, and freshman year of college, and I rediscovered running after drifting away from it. At first, I hated it. I couldn’t understand why people loved running so much. But for as much as I didn’t like it, every day I would still go out and get a run in. Nothing was better than the feeling that I would get after I completed a run, which I later learned was called a “runner’s high” in the running community. I just loved how it made me feel, I loved how it could clear my mind, and just let me drift in my own little world. Ultimately, I am so glad that I rediscovered running. It has been nothing but a blessing, that I was fortunate enough to get back into it.

I knew that I loved running at one point in my life. I was the kid that when doing the mile run in gym class would be one of the first to finish, and then go back out and motivate the rest of the kids in my class to finish. I just had to get back to that mindset. I realized right away that running was a mental sport. It could also relate to my life in general. I am a very determined individual, and I believe that running has only made that characteristic stronger. It is so easy to give in and come up with an excuse as to why to not go out and run, or to go out and accomplish anything. But with a little perseverance and determination, anything is possible!