A Wren Says

I got up to the starting line, wearing basic gym clothes in a sea of coordinated sets. I took off walking while everyone else ran at a brisk pace. I went slowly, getting lapped, so many times. There were moments when I thought surely I should have dressed differently, I should have tried harder, I should have been like everyone else. But the truth is I didn’t have to. I didn’t need to look to what everyone else was doing. I just needed to focus on me and the race I was running.

I find the lessons learned in the struggles of an endurance race resonate into the other aspects of my life. Despite how others could be perceiving me, despite what others are doing, despite what I might even think I should be doing instead, I need to go and do it my own way. In my own fashion and at my own speed.

It is scary to struggle in public. It is scary to fail while everyone can see. Those fears make it easy for me to seek to conform, but conformity never got me closer to becoming who I was truly meant to be.

I will run my own race, literally and metaphorically.