it's not about the cake

Over these four years, one becomes quite accustomed to the many quirks of cross country runners. One of these quirks that I've been quite familiar with as of late is chasing after falling leaves. The object of this game is, well, to catch a falling leaf before it hits the ground. While at first, the leaf was simply that; a leaf, it later became an opportunity, fallen from above for us to grasp and cherish.

This year, I began the season with the typical dread; one learns to hate hill workouts after four years. I actually got in the habit of saying "Thank God today is over!" after each practice, sensing that each day was one step closer to the end of my misery. However, this attitude soon changed. Early in the season, I had the misfortune of losing a family member. The team embraced me, and I honestly feel as though I could not have made it through this period without them.

This turn of events made me reconsider what I should be thanking God for. Every single day I've come to cross country these four years, I've been greeted by a team filled with people who love to be around each other, and keep each other laughing for hours. Soon, I stopped thinking of the team as a group of crazy people who like to run, and started seeing them as a family.

After I made this realization, the season really started to turn around. I'm not sure if the rest of my teammates feel the same, but I really believe that we banded together after that. With a few hard losses behind us, we bounced back to get revenge at the conference meet, and perform well at the class meet. Each and every person on both the teams left their hearts on the course every day, and for this I truly thank you all.

Four years ago, I walked into this cafeteria thinking, "Man, I've got so many more miles to run, this is going to stink pretty badly." Now as I stand here tonight, I see a cafeteria filled with the teammates I love more than anything. I honestly could not put together a greater group of people to spend every day after school with, nor would I if I had the chance.

With that said, I leave you with a haiku:

October's blessing,
Leaves fall, with my dreams fulfilled.
I will miss you all.

Thank you, God, for dropping this leaf my way.