Running

So today I ran five miles straight. To some that might not seem like a very big feat but I have been so happy about it all day. Growing up I was a normal child. I loved to swim and jump rope. And then one day it happened. I was at jump rope (yes I did go two times a week to jump rope.) All of a sudden my heart started to beat uncontrollably, like it was going to erupt out of my chest. It beat so hard and so fast it was painful and hard to breath. I home and told my mother, who is a nurse. She held a stethoscope to my chest and told me to take some deep breaths. My heart was racing and an unparalleled speed and then.... it just stopped. After a few seconds it started up again at a normal pace. I was 10. That is when it all began. Emergency room visits and Cardiologist appointments, EKGs and heart monitors. I started taking daily medication, and I quite jump rope. I played soccer but couldn't push too hard for fear a Emergency Room visit would ensue. At age 16 they performed my first heart surgery. It was very non evasive so I don't have a zipper chest or anything but it also didn't work. I was crushed the first time my heart went into arrest after that surgery. Here came another round of doctor's visits and heart monitors. A few weeks shy of my 18th birthday I had my second heart surgery. This time I waited for the trouble to start again. Days went by, then weeks, and months: nothing ever came. I was a sophomore in college and went back to my cardiologist. "You're Golden" She said. I didn't stop smiling for a whole week. I put my last EKG on the refrigerator. That was six years ago.

So today I ran five miles straight. Because I could never push that hard when I was younger it was like I thought I had gone past the time when I had the ability to do so. I was wrong, not only was I wrong about running, but perhaps I was wrong about all the limitations I place on myself. I can push so much harder.