It’s a saying. “All good things fall apart”. Like getting a hole in your favorite tee shirt, or a skip in your favorite cd. Or the destruction of your beloved Chacos. After 7 long years, my tried and true pair of single strap toe-loop women’s 8s are done for. The sole is ripping off, the straps are fraying; but, man, were they comfortable. They were so familiar, so well known. I bought them in highschool. Wore them at camp, at school, in 11 different countries (12 if you count El Salvador that one weekend). And now their time has come. I left them behind at Cicrin Orphanage in Ometepe, Nicaragua, waiting to begin their new adventure. Or hit the trash pile. Whatever fate decides.
Saying goodbye has been hard. It’ll be rough to look in my closet and not see them. To instinctively want to pull them on, only to see that they’re gone. They’ve been such a routine for years. And now it’s over.
My race is over too. Coming up on final debrief, I can’t help but compare the end of my Chacos to the end of my race. 11 months has become so normal, so routine, so familiar. I’ll miss it so much. The people, my teammates, feedback, travel days. Maybe even bug bites and strange food and not being able to understand when other people speak. Like my Chacos, it hurts to see it go, to say goodbye. But hopefully, maybe, this good thing is coming to an end so that new things can begin. My Chacos served me well. They did their time. And now it’s time for a new pair. And who knows how much better Chacos are now than they were 7 years ago?! Like my race. My time was amazing, incredible, life changing. It was good. An what’s next will be even better.
