Big whoops

I just wrote this essay for a scholarship, but when I went to submit it was informed that they can only be 150 words long. Needless to say, this does not work in 150 words. It can have a nice second life as a blog post instead.

Describe a personal accomplishment and the strength and skills you used to achieve it.

My favorite sport in gym class was ping pong. I would get winded walking up the driveway to check the mail. I was not one of the athletic people. I didn’t know what I was missing.

When I stated walking the one mile to class each day in college it was actually because I was lazy.  I hated finding parking on campus, most parking spaces were a walk from my classes anyway, and biking was too much work. I wasn’t prepared to actually LIKE it, but within that first year I was taking longer and longer detours on my way home just for the experience of walking through new areas. I started finding places to drive to and go walking, and soon discovered how much I liked hiking.

My first job after college was as a biological field assistant. I had a remote field site that I would walk out to and back from each day. By this time I was enjoying all the walking, but I did not enjoy hills. There was a steep hill the end of my walk each day, right before I made it back to my truck. I hated that hill. My thighs would burn walking up that hill. I would have to take two or three rest breaks. I would start sweating. That wasn’t suppose to happen, I was good at walking! I was determined to eventually make it to the top without stopping for a rest. It was my first fitness goal ever.  

Setting and achieving goals for myself became a pattern after that. I made it to the top of that hill without stopping, and then I started running it. I made a goal to be able to do 10 push-ups, and then 20. I decided if I could run up a hill, then I could run a mile. And then three miles. And then five. Each time I made a new goal, it seemed so far away, but the more impossible it seemed to me, the more determined I was to prove to myself that I could achieve it.

Tenacity and persistence became my favorite personal qualities. I began to enjoy  facing each new challenge. Once I could run five miles I signed up for my first 10k race. I made goals to try new activities that required a degree of physical fitness I never possessed before. I climbed the South Sister. I went on a four day backpacking trip. I went on a three day white-water river kayaking adventure. I was volunteered for tough back-country work assignments. I started training for a marathon!

When I crossed the finish line for my first race, I had the most amazing feeling of personal accomplishment. I was no longer alone setting goals for myself. I was surrounded by hundreds of other people doing the same. I was a runner! I had achieved what I thought was truly impossible...I had become one of the athletic people.