Expectations of a Racer: Alarm Clocks, Metronomes and Sucking Wind
I love to learn. The content isn’t as important to me as the context in which learning occurs or the process of learning itself.
When I was nine I became the family alarm clock. Every weekday morning at 5:00 AM while my dad read the paper I practiced piano before school. One morning, the sound of the steady metronome unaccompanied by music caused my dad to enter the room. He sat next to me and mimicked my pouted posture. “This is hard,” I whispered. He simply nodded his head in empathy, “Yeah, this is hard.” Learning from The Royal Conservatory of Music did not come easy to me, but in preparing for Kiwanis Festival competitions I learned that true success is not immediate perfection but commitment to practice.
In 2012 I decided to actualize a childhood dream of becoming a runner. Growing up I had aspired to be fit and healthy like my mom, a former Canadian Volleyball National Team athlete. But until I registered for my first half marathon I defined my athletic potential by my inability to run more than 20 minutes. The day I put my training schedule in place was the day I gave myself permission to suck wind—the point in running where you’re gasping for air and not sure if you can keep going—until my body broke through and breathing became natural. Training to run 21 kilometers was hard but within two months I developed the endurance to successfully cross the finish line of my first race. Running is now part of my everyday life.
Six months ago I was preparing to enter a very different learning environment than that of World Race. I had my heart set on getting married this summer and starting my MBA in the epicenter of Canada’s multicultural and financial hub in the fall. The alarm clock still went off at 5:00 AM (maybe 6:30 AM on a Saturday) to ensure I had enough time in a day to commute downtown for work, study for the infamous GMAT exam, catch up on daily news, train for an upcoming race, read my bible, volunteer, spend time with my boyfriend, eat healthy, maintain a social life and do whatever else needed to be done to build an attractive resume. Life became an exhausting routine as if every breath was dictated by the beat of a metronome. I was sucking wind with every tic…toc. This time, when the music stopped, God entered the room.
There is a good kind of hard that develops endurance and shapes character, like the discipline of practicing piano at 5:00 AM, or pushing through the discomfort of trying to catch your breath while running. But there is a kind of hard that requires humility to admit that something is out of sync. It was in the process of surrendering my hopes, ambitions and plans before God that I was unexpectedly invited to join World Race. Though World Race is not at all what I envisioned myself doing at this point in my life, I am excited to embrace the adventure of fully immersing myself in 11 different cultures in Asia over the next 11 months. Choosing to engage in the process of learning, regardless of the context, is much like allowing yourself to suck wind in order to cross the finish line. It is hard work because it demands risk, requires failure and exposes vulnerability. I have great expectations that World Race will be the kind of hard that results in lasting transformation.
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