How a 30 Year Old Memory Schooled Me

I’m getting ready for a new chapter of my life and there’s a part of me that’s saying “You can’t do this, it’s just too hard.”

It’s a hard voice to ignore. It makes me want to throw in the towel and say “Yeah, I should just play it safe and stick to what I know.” But I remembered something.

I’ve been through this before.

It happened when I was 13 and joined the basketball team at St. Ambrose School. I was scared.  I was convinced that I couldn’t run long distances.

Why?

Because my Dad had tuberculosis when he was a young man in Ireland. I was convinced that tuberculosis was hereditary and I inherited my father’s lungs. Silly right? But that’s how kids think sometimes. Adults think this way as well. Rationalizing crazy ideas when they don’t want to step into the unknown.

At 13, I let the crazy notions win. I got stuck in my thinking, got despondent when other kids just ran by me in practice.

So I gave in and quit the team.

A year later, I was in a different school and in a different headspace. I ran on the track team competing in the quarter mile and then the mile. The next fall I ran cross country. 3 mile races with 100 miles training weeks.  I did that on a regular basis for the next two years.

In the space of three years I was doing the thing that I thought was impossible.

So what’s different now? What’s stopping me from moving forward?

Me.

It’s time to grow up again and realize I can push through and do this. With God’s help I can get some miles under my belt.

Let’s go.