Sometimes You Have to Go for It


In the last two and a half months, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on what I want to do in the next chapter of my career. It has caused me to look deep inside to come to the realization I am a learner at heart. I like to learn to make and fix things in my life, which drew me into engineering for my undergraduate degree. It brought me into technical projects at the school where I taught and was principal. I also realized I like to share this knowledge with others. I want to make others’ lives easier and better through education. I have done this by educating elementary, middle, and high school students; undergraduates; and graduates.

I believe in being a life-long learner, and I am reminding myself this week, “sometimes you have to go for it.” There has been some hesitation with publicizing my newest personal project, but I am drawn back to the idea that sometimes you need to pull off the band-aid. So here you have it, my opportunity to share what I have learned for hopefully the betterment of others. At a minimum, I hope you are entertained as you hear about some of my life stories. As you can see in the archive, I started writing posts at the end of January, but now I am ready to take off the training wheels and go for it.

Never in a million years did I think I would be writing a blog. I never considered myself a strong writer growing up and through my undergraduate degree. My years of being in education have taught me to improve my writing. As principal, I used to write weekly communications. Jokingly, in July, I thought I would start sending a personal newsletter to let my former colleagues and friends what know I have been up to since I “missed” writing. Well, I guess you can’t take the newsletter away from a principal. My secondary lesson this week is “I am a writer.”

Piggybacking off that “I am” statement, I have never considered myself a runner. I wasn’t very fast* when in junior high or high school. I ran the mile for track in the spring of my eighth grade year because I hadn’t participated in any other sports at school and thought I should try. I tried running again in 2004 and had been a “yo-yo” runner until 2019; that is, I would run from time to time - I had my ups and downs with running. Just before the pandemic, I started taking running seriously; the lockdown galvanized my habit of running. Since then, I ran my first race, a marathon in September 2022, and I am training for another marathon in May. My training plan suggested a half marathon this weekend, and I will be running in the Oakland Running Festival’s half marathon. I toyed with the idea of racing a month ago but did not take it seriously until three days ago when I signed up. I guess I am a runner, which leads to the other portion of my blog. I have come to enjoy running and improving my health. I enjoy learning about running. I like sharing what I have learned with others. *By the way, you don’t need to be fast to be a runner.

There you have it, the idea behind Learn | Make | Fix | Run my pet project. When in life have you had to “go for it”? Please share below in the comments.

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