Late Night Ramblings

Its’s 9:30pm, and I’ve been in bed for a while, but can’t sleep. Two huge opportunities came up today, and I’m super conflicted about them. And then 2 other huge things for 2 close friends also came up today, so I feel like I’m trying to process all of this at once. First, I was offered another job unexpectedly. It’s an assistant coach at a high school nearby. Coaching has literally been something I wanted to do “when I grew up” since I was in third grade. However, now that it’s here, I’m so torn! I thought I had my life planned out for at least the next year. I would run with my alma mater, Master’s College this summer, continue to train, race a few times and try to get lifetime PR’s. Then in August I would start the teaching credential program at TMC and that would consume my life for the next year, so I might be able to run still, but probably not train very well.

However, when I talked to the coach who offered me the job, he wants me to start in just a couple of weeks. This means that I couldn’t run with TMC and the high school, since their practices overlap. There are many pros to each side, and at least one large con for each. If I stayed at TMC for the summer, it would be with very close friends and coaches. It’s familiar to me, with a team of believers, so I could be encouraged by them and hopefully encourage them in return. There are 9 newcomers with only 11 returners, but all of the newcomers are local for the girls, so that means that they don’t know the runs yet and are learning how to train with us. It’s been awesome the last 2 days I’ve run with them, and I’ve felt needed and appreciated. I could also still train and receive feedback on my training from my coach of the last 4 years. This is the comfortable option. A con for staying at TMC is that I don’t want to hold back the team by being a crutch for them. If the girls are counting on me to lead runs, how will they figure out how to train and stick in a pack as they need to? The summer is the most important time as it sets the tone for the rest of the year. They have a ton of talent, and if they can work together to die for each other, they will be unstoppable. I don’t want to get in the way of that!

Coaching at the high school, on the other hand, would be a huge stretch for me. I really don’t know anyone there on a very personal level, but I am acquaintances with many people, including the coach and most of the assistant coaches. I know several kid’s names, but I don’t know anyone well. It would be a very growing and stretching time spiritually. Coaching is what I’ve always wanted to do, and that’s partly why I want to teach. Coaching at a well known school would be any aspiring Coach’s dream. And then to have that job plopped in your lap without any warning is even more astonishing! The reason why I’m so torn though is because I had my heart set on running with TMC all summer and training. I haven’t talked to the head coach about many of the details, but I imagine the quality of my running will decrease since I will be more of a coach and therefore less selfish. (Running at a high level takes a high amount of selfishness, which sounds weird but is true to a certain extent.) Am I willing to say my fastest days are behind me?? Am I willing to say I’m only an 18:50 girl for a 5k? I told Coach on the way home from Alabama just 2 weeks ago that I feel like I’m just starting to really train. I know I’m starting my 10^th year of running now, but I’ve just been learning HOW to TRAIN and HOW to THINK like an elite. This has not come easily, quickly or naturally, but I think I’m just starting to figure it all out, thanks to wonderful coaches and teammates. Yet, sometimes the best rewards come from the biggest risks. Making decisions and growing up is not easy, but these decisions help shape me into the person I’m becoming. No matter which path I choose, there will be huge ups and downs, lessons to be learned and mistakes to be made. But this is just part of life. And life requires risks to be taken sometimes!

The other things that came up today don’t need to mentioned here, but there could possibly be another large decision I have to make in the next 3 weeks. And my roommate for my senior year and super close friend and former teammate has a job interview today for her dream job. The best part about that is if she gets the job, she’ll be able to stay in the SCV! There are so many things that came up today that require great prayer, both supplication and praise! I am thankful for these opportunities for growth and maturity, but am a little apprehensive too. Life after college has been very interesting so far!

Bargain Shopping

I love bargain shopping. I hate paying full price for anything if I can help it. I worked at a resale store for 6 years, and I think that spoiled me). Today I went to Old Navy with my mother and a sister. We had heard that they were having a great sale on workout clothes, and when all 6 of us run, and most of us double several times a week… let’s just say we go through a lot of running clothes. On a whim, I decided to go through the jeans on clearance, which was quite possibly the best decision of the week. Most of the jeans were sizes too big for me, but right as I thought I was done, a tag with my size caught my eye. The price really caught my eye, though! It said $0.47. I blinked and read the tag again, but it still said the same price! I was sure it was a size too small because they looked really skinny. I decided I couldn’t NOT try them on, and to my great surprise, they were the most comfortable pair of jeans I’ve ever tried on. They were a great medium color and were even stretchy! My favorite! I also found a red and cream striped cotton infinity scarf (it is so soft!) and super nice running socks for $1.47 each. So, I bought 3 items for less than 4 dollars. Now, that’s what I call bargain shopping!

Spring Cleaning in Summer

I graduated from college 25 days ago (has it really been that long?!?), but because of NAIA nationals, I didn’t move back home from the dorms until Memorial day. I knew that when Karis and I moved back home that it would be a little interesting. We both had a lot of stuff in our dorm rooms, and there wasn’t space in our room at home. Karis and I both knew right away that we would have to spend at least a few days cleaning so we could move our clothes from the garage into the bedroom. (It’s actually kind of fun living out of the garage, because I know it’s only my clothes there!)

Karis was really good about cleaning the first few days and got a few bags worth of clothes and shoes ready to give away. I ended up working a lot the first few days, so today was the first time I started cleaning with Abigail. It was actually quite surprising how much we got done in an hour and a half! We started in the study, and boy, was it was a mess! But by lunch time, I had taken out 3 bags of trash and 2 more bags of stuff to give away.

I was thinking about the lessons that could be learned from this cleaning project. Here’s what I came up with so far:

• How in the world did we ever accumulate this much stuff!!! I was finding stuff from when I was in 9th grade, especially clothes. I know there is 4 of us, so it’s easy to pass on clothes, but clothes from 8 years ago, really? I am disgusted with myself!
• We are so blessed to have this much stuff. It’s a pain to go through, clean and throw away, but I could be living in a third world country somewhere scrounging around for my next meal.
• It’s soooo freeing to clean and work towards a clean room!
• It’s also fun to find old notes and trinkets which bring back great memories. I found a few cards from close friends and as I read them, I was encouraged again, even though the note was several years old!
• I can’t wait to get the rooms cleaned so we can be a better steward of the things God has given to us. Who knows, maybe we could even rent out a room or something!

I don’t want this to be just another well-intentioned plan to clean our room that dies out by the third week of summer. Besides the fact that we just can live with such a messy room, we want to rearrange the 2 bedrooms so they are more functional. And perhaps they will actually stay cleaner! A few days ago, Karis and I came up with a “master plan” to totally revamp the furniture in both rooms. The new plan gives us much more open space in the middle of each room and even some wall space that’s not used. Right now in the bedroom, we have 2 bunk beds and 2 dressers. The study currently has 2 dressers, 3 desks and 2 book shelves in a 10’x9′ room! Both rooms have large closets and windows, so every inch of wall space is used.

The four of us girls have slept in the same room for the past 9 years or so. It’s been nice, especially as we went through high school and had nights where we went to bed at different times and got up at totally different times. I remember that we used to stay up and talk for hours when our parents thought we were sleeping (shhh!). But now that I’m done with college and 2 more are in college in the Fall and are living in the dorms, it makes more sense to have 2 beds, dressers and desks in each room. Gwen and I could even have our own room during the week, and when Karis and Abigail come home each weekend, there will be a bed ready and waiting!

I thought about not writing a blog post on this because it shows that we’ve been lazy in cleaning our rooms. However, I decided to post this because then we have some accountability! Here’s to two clean rooms!

Ps. Take the poll below and tell me how you clean your room!