November:
Things that happened in November in order of importance:
1. I finished my first ever 1/2 marathon on November 18th, 2012 in the beautiful city of Philadelphia!
2. I spent Thanksgiving at home with the family on Long Island and it was a much needed break from the hectic day-to-day of JVC life in Scranton.
3. It started Snowing in Scranton! (please note: this will become a recurring theme of the winter season)
4. This month is the farthest back and, unsurprisingly, I can remember the least about it. Whoops.
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#1. The Philadelphia 1/2 Marathon:
So for the weekend of the 1/2 marathon myself and several of my roommates headed down to America's first capital, Philadelphia to stay with the Philly JVC house. The JVs down there have become some great friends of ours and so every chance we get to spend some time with them is warmly received. As I may have mentioned before my good friend and former roommate, Mike Meizoso and I had signed up to run the 1/2 marathon together some 5 months earlier and so we met up the night before to prep ourselves and swap stories of how training had gone. The anticipation I felt that night trying to get some decent sleep before the run can only be compared to the type of giddy Pre-Christmas morning butterflies you experience circa 5 years of age. Well, sooner than I would have liked, morning came and so did the race. It was incredible to see all 15,000-some people who had come out to run all in one place. Despite some knee pain at the time, I managed to perform very well during the race. I found myself engrossed not just in the adrenaline-pumping nature of the event, but of the spectacle we (the runners) had created on the streets of Philadelphia. I would pass people on miles 4...5...6, expecting to see less and less of the crowds as the miles went on. Yet, surprisingly, the throngs of cheering strangers continued for most of the race, keeping me on pace and strengthening the smile on my face each time I would hear an encouraging scream or read some witty piece of signage.
This brings me to what I learned that weekend of the 1/2 marathon (what? you thought I'd tell a story without an all-important moral fulcrum? c'mon now...). A lot of my experience this year has involved relying on the kindness of perfect strangers. Whether it was my first several weeks in Scranton, needing help navigating the labyrinth of local bus routes or consistently receiving generous support from local FJVs and others who know about our little house of volunteers, I can honestly say that this year has taught me the incredibly power of kindness (in particular, kindness toward strangers). It would be an understatement to say that the hordes of people who came out to line up and cheer myself and my fellow runners on that morning helped me to finish the race. They showed me the type of kindness and support that we hear about in prayer, the kind we are promised in the speeches of politicians, and the kind we scarcely feel except for in the wake of some great tragedy. I experienced first-hand the kindness of strangers one other time that weekend, on my way to Mike's apartment. Please keep in mind, I had never yet visited my friend Mike's place when I began my journey there at approximately 8:00pm Saturday night. Still, I plugged the address into my trusty GPS and proceeded to "follow the road". As luck would have it, I had made an error in entering the location on my phone and as a result, the directions led me to a little town several miles North of where Mike actually lives. As more luck would have it, just as I was calling him to get the correct address, my phone died. And there I was. Alone, with no phone, no address, no clue where I was in the middle of a small suburb outside of Philadelphia. So, what to do, you ask? Well, I tried my hand at something I had found myself on the other side of for quite some time now, relying on the kindness of strangers. I pulled into the driveway of a house that looked well-lit (that's always the prerequisite for safety in these types of stories, right?) and approached looking for some kindness, a simple outlet to plug in my phone so I could call my friend and get back on the road. What I found was so much more than I could have ever expected. I met a woman and her foster children that live in the house, the boys were having some friends over for a night of video games, sports, movies and very little sleeping-"sleepover". As I waited for my phone to charge, they shared with me their excitement at my participation in the race the next morning, the youngest sharing that he runs cross country at his school and one day wants to run in a 1/2 marathon of his own. Even after my phone was charged and I got the address I found an outpouring of generosity as the woman volunteered to mapquest the directions on her own computer and print a copy for me, so as to avoid similar disastrous charge-related incidents from occurring. With some last minute well-wishes and an offer of a drink for the road, I left the home of these perfect strangers. Strangers who shared with me the same type of kindness that I saw in the faces of thousands more strangers several hours later as I ran 13.1 miles through the heart of the city of brotherly love. I've kept that story with me for some time (admittedly, partly out of the embarrassment surrounding my dependence on my phone's GPS function) and in time some of the minutia of the story will inevitably fade from memory, but that feeling of genuine kindness, the kind that can seldom be expressed except in these moments of utter dependence on others, will endure.
#2. Thanksgiving at home was a blast. I absolutely love my extended family, quirks and all. To sum up the visit, this picture should suffice:
Visiting home and getting to witness the type of family upbringing that has made my life possible made me very grateful for all that I have and, I think, helped me to truly embrace the spirit of giving thanks. It's hard to put into words, even by use of some quirky exemplar, how my cousins and family make me feel, perhaps I'll give it a try in another posting. For now, let it suffice to say that my family made the list of "greatest things about November" and as a close 2nd to one of my greatest moments of the year, which should give an indication to how much they mean to me.
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4. This month is the farthest back and, unsurprisingly, I can remember the least about it. Whoops.
.JPG)
So for the weekend of the 1/2 marathon myself and several of my roommates headed down to America's first capital, Philadelphia to stay with the Philly JVC house. The JVs down there have become some great friends of ours and so every chance we get to spend some time with them is warmly received. As I may have mentioned before my good friend and former roommate, Mike Meizoso and I had signed up to run the 1/2 marathon together some 5 months earlier and so we met up the night before to prep ourselves and swap stories of how training had gone. The anticipation I felt that night trying to get some decent sleep before the run can only be compared to the type of giddy Pre-Christmas morning butterflies you experience circa 5 years of age. Well, sooner than I would have liked, morning came and so did the race. It was incredible to see all 15,000-some people who had come out to run all in one place. Despite some knee pain at the time, I managed to perform very well during the race. I found myself engrossed not just in the adrenaline-pumping nature of the event, but of the spectacle we (the runners) had created on the streets of Philadelphia. I would pass people on miles 4...5...6, expecting to see less and less of the crowds as the miles went on. Yet, surprisingly, the throngs of cheering strangers continued for most of the race, keeping me on pace and strengthening the smile on my face each time I would hear an encouraging scream or read some witty piece of signage.
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| My housemates & Villanova friends who came out to cheer on Mike & I in our very first 1/2 Marathon! |
#2. Thanksgiving at home was a blast. I absolutely love my extended family, quirks and all. To sum up the visit, this picture should suffice:
Visiting home and getting to witness the type of family upbringing that has made my life possible made me very grateful for all that I have and, I think, helped me to truly embrace the spirit of giving thanks. It's hard to put into words, even by use of some quirky exemplar, how my cousins and family make me feel, perhaps I'll give it a try in another posting. For now, let it suffice to say that my family made the list of "greatest things about November" and as a close 2nd to one of my greatest moments of the year, which should give an indication to how much they mean to me.
#3. The Snow! As you may have guessed, it's cold up here in Scranton. I am continually reminded of this fact every time I wake up and my feet have managed to leave the comfortable warmth of the blanket, or in the icy cold shock of the run - no, mad dash - from the shower to the dresser drawer. I thought some of those in more temperate regions might enjoy this snowy sight from our backyard in Scranton.
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And soooooooooo, that's pretty much the month of November in a nutshell! A posting on December's events to follow shortly (ie. when I get home tonight...I hope)
Yours,
Tom
Tom
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