Party Tricks and the road to Happiness

Kate and I are practicing our party tricks. And by party tricks I mean we want to be able to do 10 pull ups. I've never been able to do ten pull ups in my life and the challenge is suddenly the single most exciting endeavor in my life. I only get to practice the secret training regimen twice a week and the premise of how it works is crazy, hardly doing any pull ups at all. Training day 1 was Tuesday and tomorrow is training day 2. There are 16 training days total. I'm so excited I can't go to sleep at the moment. Its ridiculous but my life has new meaning... at least for the next 8 weeks.

This brings me to the classic tale of life being about the journey, not the destination. I am mildly terrified not knowing what my destination is (although finding wildlife biology has eased these fears substantially) but I'm getting more relaxed and the enjoying the journey despite this terror. In fact, I'm starting to love the journey so much that I truly think I've reached a point where I could live life as a perpetual journey as I grow more comfortable in succeeding and failing, doing things really well and totally screwing up, embracing my awkwardness and alternately being more "on" than ever... I have friends I love, friends that inspire me, friends that will join me in adventure. I feel less bad about taking time for myself and completely shutting down when I need to. 

Nothing is certain and nothing can be planned or predicted. Some punches you are a totally on point and you are rolling along jabbing left right left right left right right right left; some punches you can out maneuver with agility, enjoying the rush of the near miss; some punches you are in the corner with your hands up covering your face and sometimes a punch gets you square in the nose.

Morocco was awesome. Luxury camping. It doesn't get better.

I had my hands up covering my face for most of the month of April. After an amazing trip to Morocco I was beyond excited to get back to CO and do one more month of solid training after a great base of running leading into our hometown race, Quadrock. I knew my body wasn't psyched while running the Salida Marathon right before Morocco, but I thought a couple weeks rest would mend any aliments. I ended up hurting my self quite badly and have been on running probation for a solid month now. Its been a blow that has come close to my nose. I depend on movement and sunshine for happiness. I also got the worst flu I've had in years directly after Morocco which led to a mad scramble to get school back in order. And Calculus is a bitch. 

Regardless, like life, there isn't a moral or a point. The only thing I know is that I'm happy to be slowly doling out punches myself after landing a sweet summer job at National Wildlife Research Center working for a guy I really respect and now I have pull ups and party tricks to keep me happy as I start to dream about what the summer has to offer and work on getting my body back in order to make the most of my summer. I think that's why I'm so excited for pull ups right now. Its a little goal. I can barely touch the idea of doing 10 pull ups at the moment but I know I'm going to be able to do it so it's exciting to travel the road that will lead me to this stupid little prize. Maybe Kate and I will get a free beer out of the endeavor, but more likely reaching the marker will be forgotten. I won't however, forget Kate and I walking around the CSU gym looking sheepish with weight belts in our hands, strapping 10lb plates to our waists... giddy, laughing. So I guess in summation I'll steal a beautiful quote from Summits of My Life ...

"We don't know if we'll find it, but we're going in search of happiness."

Its really all we can do.