What would be a very easy and inexpensive way to keep fit? What do you have in mind?
I’m thinking,running.
(If you are thinking the same. We have telepathy,then.)
"Do you love to run?"Well,if you met the 15-year-old teenager Rose.You may want to give it a second thought before asking.Because it’s really not such a good conversation starter, it definitely is a conversation stopper.
Back then I hated to run.Or to be exact,I would be freaking out even HEARING OR thinking of the word "run".
Why? Remember in senior high school entrance exam,there was this PE test where we girls had to run 800 meters? If you do it within 4 minutes and 5 seconds,yeh,everyone’s happy. 5 more seconds slower,em-em,not so happy.
This is why I hated it.4 minutes and 5 seconds felt like a cloud in the sky,laughing at me from above. “I’m 4 minutes and 5 seconds.You will never reach me.”
Yeah,I was way too slow. I was absolutely hopeless. A snail can run faster than me,if he wants to.
I surely know now it’s not such a big deal at all.But back in the day, the whole “4 minutes and 5 seconds” thing was so overwhelming to a 15 year-old girl.It wont be too difficult to understand how running became an absolutely terrifying thing to do in my life ever since.
From then on,I have been trying to avoid running as much as I can.I try my very best not to run,You know.Except when the bus I’m catching is leaving and I’m like still 10 meters away.If I run,I could catch it;If I dont,I'll have to wait for the next one.Except that,I DONT run.
Dramatically, however, a week ago, when I went for a walk with my sister at the playground in our neighborhood. Out of no where, a voice, a naughty and crunchy one,rang in my head, "Why don’t you run for a while?" I was a little surprised at this idea of my own and a little excited about it too.Then I thought,why not? That was when I realized how much I had missed during all those years.Running can be so much fun.And I did not know it.How can you not like to run as a human being endowed with legs?
I felt like a bicycle,a fancy one,my legs being two wheels and they could just run around without having to stop.Actually I felt like Forrest Gump.There’s only one little tiny difference here.In the movie,he had ran for 3 years ,2 months, 14 days and 16 hours non-stop.Well,I’ve ran for about a week,10 minutes a day maximum.
In the movie,a bunch of reporters run with him and keep asking questions:
“Sir,where are you running?
Are you doing this for world peace?Are you doing this for the homeless?Are you running for women's rights?Or for the environment?
Why are you doing this?”
And Forrest Gump simply says,“I just felt like running.”
I would think of Forrest Gump when I run.
More often,I would think of Professor Morrie from my favorite English book,Tuesdays with Morrie.
He loves dancing,he had always been a dancer.The music didn't matter.Rock and roll,big band,the blues.He loved them all.He would close his eyes and with a blissful smile begin to move to his own sense of rhythm.It wasn’t always pretty.But he loved it.
I think of him because I am still a super slow runner.When I run,I would turn on the music that I save specially for my running time and run to my own sense of rhythm.From the frown my sister has put on,I know it cannot be pretty. She would look like me,and like,"Why do I have to take a walk with this weirdo?"
ANYWAY,that night,the miraculous night that I uncovered the fun of running,I cant help posting my excitement on my wechat moments,
"Do I love to run,babe?"~yeah,loving it.
Am I good at it?Hello?Not at all. I love it because I just felt like running. Because it is fun,period.
I have never,in my previous 27 years of life,imagined that one day,I'd say this to my self,
"do I love to run babe?~yeah,loving it."
Old time conversation stopper does turn to a lovely conversation starter.
Then I cant help thinking,if this happened to me,there could be such a thing,such an Aha moment for everyone.
what's that thing in your life that you were afraid of doing before,but want to give a second thought about? something you are not necessarily good at, but you might enjoy doing?
Could it be biking, singing, painting, playing the guitar ,dancing,swimming or simply, running? (hopefully,not gambling or clubing)
I’ll be more than glad to know if theres such a thing for you.But don’t lie to yourself, "I’ll think about it and try later"！Because usually,"later becomes never"
I guess what I'm trying to say is,whatever your THING is.Try it.And there’s a big chance that a little lovely naughty crunchy voice would be ringing in your head,
"do I love to do this,babe~yeah,loving it."