Where'd you go, 2013?

 By: Unknown    Thursday, January 02, 2014     No comments

Every adult seems to say it -- that the years pass more quickly, that daily you'll be questioning where has the year gone, that you won't even realize that suddenly it's the second half of the year and you won't know what you've done and what you'll do. Whether time compresses or accelerates I'll never know, but it seems impossible that it's 365 days have passed since I celebrated New Year's Eve with chubby post-wisdom teeth extraction cheeks. I believe it now, that even though we're increasingly conscious of time we don't know where it goes or even how quickly, painfully aware but blissfully uncomprehending. 

Thanks to Alex Gaynor of the Heights for this!

For happening so quickly, for ending so abruptly, 2013 was wonderful. A progression of extraordinary events, easy and difficult. For the first time, I've spent more time at school than at home in Pennsylvania, which means that Boston College has itself become a home. Two semesters have passed, in which I've been twice blessed by the housing gods, moving from Newton to 90, with a lease signed for a house come junior year. In which I've battled exhaustion and endured a somewhat unnecessary all nighter for Macklemore tickets (and chugged a Box of Joe). In which I've learned to appreciate and to enjoy hockey. In which I've continued to meet people, to make friends who consistently amaze and inspire me. In which I've discovered that living on the a floor with fifteen of your closest friends may threaten productivity, but it certainly improves quality of living. In which I've kept and made some of the best friends I ever could have imagined. In which I'm in constant awe of the absolutely remarkable aspects of everyone around me. In which experienced the strength city and the realized the meaning of a marathon. In which I've challenged and been challenged (and hopefully conquered). In which I've realized that everyone is somehow winging it. In which I've never felt so wonderfully lost, but have never felt so much at home. In which Boston College and the people therein emphasized how right of a choice this was.

For those few months I was home during the summer and now during winter break, I've become more appreciate of family and of home. To quote Tolstoy, "happy families are alike"; every family is absurd in its own way. With funerals and family vacations, the change was varied, and it wasn't necessarily easy or pleasant, but it was immeasurably important. Ridiculousness aside, my family has been the support and the familiarity I've needed. Distance has only made me realize how lucky I was to have such a family with traditions and quirks. I've been able to share Boston with my family, to explore and experience new places, to find some fun in getting lost (looking at you, Hilton Head). Even though I usually ache to return to Boston after a few days in Pennsylvania, there is no place like home, with familiarity of holidays and night drives and traditions and friends and family. There's something reliable about home, the people and the things. Time inevitability changes them, but they're essentially the same. How great is it too return to genuine friends, with whom everything still feels real and genuine, despite months of distance and inconsistent communication  A stable familiarity, a sense of and a love for home that never really diminishes. 

Running in 2013 started poorly. After a pain in my foot intensified in late January, I was diagnosed with a stress fracture that had me resting for several weeks. It was my first serious injury, and now I can empathize with the injured, all too well do I remember those even more painfully long weeks of rest. 
I resumed training for my first half marathon in May. After the Boston Marathon, I was inspired to sign up for the Steamtown Marathon in October. I stopped avoiding the marathon, which I had always been eager (if not somewhat anxious) to run, and decided to to give the 26.2 the old college try. My first half in May was less than stellar: I bonked the last three miles, the final mile a cruel death march to the finish line. Maybe it was inconsistent training or maybe it wasn't my day, but it scared the hell out of me. If I could barely complete those 13.1, how could I race double that distance? 16 weeks of training -- early morning miles, solo workouts, stomachaches, exhausted legs, suppressing doubts with trust in my training  -- toughened me, but never did I feel more ready. All those hours and miles for a single morning of racing. Chafed and sore and proud of that effort (and slightly disappointed by missing the BQ by less than 2 minutes), I realized the marathon felt right. It's a race with a heart, with the most interesting of the physical and psychological. And here I am, training for Boston 2014, given this opportunity to run for the Wellesley Education Foundation.

2013, a sum of its challenges and triumphs and difficulties and successes, was the most fulfilling year yet. For passing so quickly, I can't help but be satisfied with the past year - the opportunities and the memories. As frustrating as it is to see time move in an unceasing acceleration, if it means that years pass with all these people and all these moments, I can't really complain. I'm making 2014 about using and accumulating and giving that positivity. A new year isn't necessarily a beginning. If I can't slow time, all I can hope is in this next year I experience those overwhelmingly great moments and actualize all those dreams and utilize all those opportunities, progressing with all that positive momentum.