My favorite quote is from George Bernard Shaw, it says “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” So I’m going to talk about the main thing that changed my life forever and set me on a new path in life. When I was ten I was like most people I absolutely despised running, I thought I would always hate it; and that's how it was going to be. I thought that wouldn’t ever change. I never tried running for fun, I always thought what ten year old in the right mindset would ever want to run for fun? Let's get into the story. On a hot summer day my neighbors invited my family over to have a pool party, we humbly accepted and proceeded to grab our swimming gear and went over to their house. We played colors, sharks and minnow , marco polo, and got to the other side where we would set up a bunch of pool floaties and run to the other side of the pool across all the floaties. Eventually we were all tired and the day was turning to night, then we ordered some pizzas. While the parents chatted about life, we were talking about school. After we finished eating pizza my neighbors mom had told their daughter that they had to run tomorrow, so they could start getting ready for cross country. At this point I was warm in my towel and starting to get drowsy. I wasn’t functioning properly and my logical thinking went out the window, and so I jokingly said I’ll run with you. All while not realizing that I just signed myself up to run 3 miles with her every morning at 7 AM, even though I usually slept till 9-10 AM.

The next morning my dad woke me up at 6 AM to get ready to run with her. I still had no idea what was going on; so I put on my shoes, ate a light breakfast which consisted of a bagel with cream cheese and a glass of milk, and I went to meet her outside. We started running and at the beginning I felt great, I had so much energy that I felt like I could run forever. Now for someone who doesn’t know a lot about running like me when I was ten, if you eat a fair amount of dairy and meat it can create monster cramps if it doesn’t get out of your system before you run. Since I didn’t know that and just had a ton of dairy; oh boy was I in for a surprise. The cramp hit fast and hard and all of the sudden I could barely stay at a jog, and I still had 2.5 miles left. I decided to push through it and not stop no matter what, all because I wanted to impress my neighbors. I somewhat hated running for the first few days, then I kind of looked forward to running with her. After the summer I was interested in cross country, so I joined cross country my 6th grade year. 

At the start of cross country I didn’t have many friends, but I kept pushing through and giving it everything I had. It eventually paid off and people started recognizing my hard work and dedication, then I started making friends of whom I looked up to and  still look up to today. I started getting decent times for my age during races but was still just below seven minutes. I kept working really hard and got it down to six and a half minute times. I eventually finished cross country with my best time being 6:28. Track eventually started and finished not much later with my best time being 6:07. I was feeling great about what I’ve accomplished and wanted to keep getting better and working harder. Then 7th grade came around and I started growing at a faster pace and I started getting growth pains, and the arches in my feet were changing; so I started getting shin splints too. It seemed like it couldn’t’ve gotten any worse but then I started running 6:45 miles again, I was back to where I started and I was furious. I wanted to work harder and get better, but I couldn’t with all the pain I was dealing with. Eventually Cross country, and Track were done. I kept trying to run over the summer but it just wasn’t working. 

Then 8th grade came around and I was ready to go, but the shin splints and growth pains came back and so did all my terrible times. I kept trying harder than ever to get into better shape but nothing was working. I was about ready to leave cross country and track and never come back, but I got new shoes with better arch support which helped a ton with my shin splints. I still had growth pains but I wasn’t going through as much pain. Finally I could run a lot better and I felt great, but my growth pains weighed me down so I didn’t break 6 minutes that year; but I was back to where I was when I started. I worked the entirety of that summer and didn’t have time to run, so I wasn’t in the best shape ever but I was ok with that. Cross country started and I was nervous because I had to run 5k’s instead of miles. But right away on the first meet of the season I was on varsity, I was super excited and kept working hard to keep that spot since a 24:42 5k wouldn’t keep me there. I always came close to not making varsity but I kept that spot the whole season. I ran my fastest 5k so far with a time of 20:08, I was so happy because I got 3rd out of the team; which kept me on varsity for the rest of the season. Which means I lettered in cross country for the year so I got a letterman jacket with the cross country patch on it. 

Eventually Track season came around. I was excited but I didn’t make the time to practice during the winter, which slowed me down a lot. I was ok with that though because I was working harder than ever to get into great shape, at the start of the season I was running a 6:05 mile. Which was my best yet I was really happy but knew I could do better, so I kept working really hard. Then it started to show I finally started getting under 6 minute miles, but just barely with my best being a 5:57. But I kept pushing and working harder than ever with me just obtaining my goal for the season. Then my next meet I ran a 5:41 mile and I was super happy, I just kept getting better and better. I ended up beating my best friend who is a senior in the two mile. Then my last normal meet before sections came up, and I ran my hardest with a 5:37 mile. That is where I’m at today. I'm very happy with my progress and I’m going to make time to run this summer to stay in shape. The school record for the mile is set at 4:25, and the high school world record is 3:43, and I know it’s a far-fetched dream but I’m going for that title; and I’m going to give it my all.