Thanksgiving Reflections

Happy Thanksgiving! I am excited for the holiday season to begin! I am sitting on a plane, heading to my grandparents for turkey dinner, and reflecting on the last month since I last wrote. When I was last in Mammoth Lakes, I was doing a lot of groundwork for the bilingual tutoring program I am starting to help bridge the gap for English as a second language learners. However, my work was interrupted by a trip to New York City where my husband, Ryan, competed in the US Olympic Team Trials. Now, as I return to my work in Mammoth Lakes, I have a renewed sense of purpose as a result of the events that transpired.
November 3rd will always be a memorable day for me. Never before have I felt such an intense mix of emotions. I watched my husband, Ryan, dominate the final miles of the marathon trials, living out his dream of becoming an Olympian, and rejoice the last two miles into the finish. I was elated! It had been a long road getting to this point, mentally and physically, for both of us. Back in August, Ryan went through a slump in his training where he had no energy and his workouts were terrible. He had begun to give up hope on his dream and wonder if he should be even show up on race day. To compound the issue, I was in Europe, helpless to support him besides calling him from my computer in Belgium. I thought about those days as I watched the relief on his face when he broke the tape.
However, our joy was shattered an hour later when our agent, Ray Flynn, reported some news that a friend of ours, Ryan Shay, had died out on the course while running. We were shocked. Both of us had just gone on a run with Ryan and his wife Alicia, a good friend of mine from college, the day before the race. He seemed as healthy and excited as my husband Ryan. After the awards, I rushed to find Alicia, who had moved to a different hotel. When I found her, my heart was heavy as I witnessed my dear friend suffering so intensely.
In the next few days, we spent some time together, with little talking and mostly crying. However, one thing she said to me while we were on a run in Central Park was, “Just remember, that we have been called to live ‘for such a time as this’ “. Coming from a verse in the Bible book of Esther, it was a reminder that God has called us to live with intentionality and realize the things he has called us to do. It was something she often reminded me of while in college, before big races or important events, but in this instance it took on new meaning. Now, not only should we realize our life calling and live intentionally to serve the one who created us, but because life is unpredictable and tomorrow is not promised to us. Therefore, we should seize the days that are given to us and live intentionally with this perspective. It is a perspective I will have when I continue with my tutoring, and in doing so, I hope to honor Ryan Shay- someone who modeled living and training with single-minded focus and intentionality.

October 15, 2007
I am sitting here in the Mammoth Lakes Public Library and awaiting my first day of a tutoring program I am starting up here in Mammoth. I am really excited for the chance to plan my own curriculum and incentives for the students, and to have a little more flexibility than I had tutoring at Mammoth Elementary School. The tutoring is free of cost, and thus I am hoping to target the low-income demographic up here in Mammoth that isn't able to take advantage of Husky Club, the incredible after school program in place, but that is not free of charge. Furthermore, it is this group of students that I believe may need the tutoring most, since a large majority of them are from immigrant families where English is not spoken in the home and often the parents don't know enough English to help with the students' homework.

I am excited because not only do I love conversing in Spanish and love working with ESL students, I really believe that this group needs to be supported early on so that they are given equal opportunities later in life. From working in the Elementary School, I have seen there is an incredible need for ESL teachers here in Mammoth, since the schools are over 50% English as a second language students, with their primary language being Spanish. The teachers are, by California law, not allowed to teach in Spanish, however I have seen firsthand how some children come into the schools knowing no English and are completely left behind. I hope to help bridge this gap, since there are no restrictions on me teaching in Spanish, to help these students catch up to the rest of the class.

I know a big challenge of beginning this tutoring will be finding a location that is easily accessible to the students. Right now the library is in the process of moving buildings to an ideal location right next to the schools, and close to the low-income housing. Hopefully I will be able to relocate in less than a month, but for the time being, I will be in the old location that is somewhat more isolated. But I will try my best to get the word out in the meantime!

One of the incentives I want to have for the students that come to tutoring is a chart, where they can get a stamp for every day they come and complete their homework with a good attitude and to the best of their ability. The chart is going to resemble the Olympic stadium in Beijing! I am looking forward to, amidst the tutoring, sharing with them about my running, and how it has taught me about hard work and setting goals in a way that they can relate it to working hard in the classroom. Hopefully, a child at a time, I can begin to make a difference up here in Mammoth!

August 6, 2007
Hello from Europe! I am writing this entry from my dorm room in the university town of Leuven, Belgium where I have been staying the past month and using as a “home base” between my competitions. So far this year I have competed in three different cities in Belgium, Madrid, and London. This weekend, I will make my first trip to Germany to a small meet in Leverkusen, and then spend a few days traveling around the area. I also look forward to exploring new areas! The races have had their ups and downs as all competitive seasons do (I’ve gotten tripped in two out of my last three races!), but I am learning to stay positive and enjoy the experience rather than being fixated on the outcome.
Since I last wrote, I had the pleasure of tutoring at the Chula Vista Public Library in the months of May and June, and meeting some amazing students. In addition, I was able to help coach the extremely talented Eastlake Flash Youth Track Club. Both experiences were very different, in that with tutoring I was able to get to know each student individually and work them one-on-one, whereas with the Flash I was working with 30+ athletes and sharing my knowledge and experiences with them somewhat more distantly. I was inspired by the young athletes’ work ethic, the respect that they showed us, and their hunger to learn and improve. I noticed that a few of the girls didn’t have proper racing shoes, and happened to be the same size foot as me, and so one day I brought them each a pair of my ASICS racing spikes. I will never forget seeing their faces light up, and how quickly they ripped off their shoes to try them on! Even though I didn’t get to know many of the athletes as much as I would have liked to, I hope that I made a small impression on them through example. We had them fill out a questionnaire for In the Arena, and one question was, “Who is a person you’ve met recently that you admire?” One of the girls came up to me, and asked, “How do you spell your name? I think I spelled it wrong here.” I looked down to see that she had written my name for that question, and I was touched!
Similarly, I was very impressed with the students I tutored at the library. Before I began tutoring, I was wondering if there would be students that would come expecting me to do their homework for them and looking for the quick way out. The very opposite was true! I quickly learned that many of the students were very bright, and in fact were looking for opportunities to showcase their talent and do the work themselves. Often the students weren’t there to help them pass a class, but because they wanted to get 100% on an assignment and wanted me to make sure they did. I saw in them a lot of myself at that age, as I was never satisfied with getting less than the top score. It was this drive that allowed me to attend my dream-college, Stanford, and I hope that as a result of me sharing with them, they will also believe that they can reach their goals too if they continue to strive for the best out of themselves.
Both experiences were unforgettable, and I miss my new friends in Chula Vista! I am looking forward to continuing my project when I return home to Mammoth in September. Although I enjoy the racing circuit in Europe, living over here is very running-centered. Although it is good for a period to be focused, there is an emptiness in having your daily life revolve around yourself. I am excited to return to my friends at Mammoth Elementary in a month and share with them the experiences I’ve had over here!

May 7, 2007
As I pulled up to Mammoth Elementary School, still sweaty from my morning workout, I reached for the door knob when suddenly it burst open towards me. "Where have you been? I've been waiting for you?!" demanded Megan (name changed), one of the students I had recently connected with in the Special Education classroom. She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the playground where we spent the remainder of recess building ski runs on the snow burm at the back of the basketball courts. It was only my second day at the school, and I hadn't realized how quickly Megan had become attached to me!
In the days that followed, we spent a lot of time together, talking during lunch, working on her math, or doing running relays around the blacktop. Megan didn't have many female friends, or friends at all for that matter, and she sensed in me the safety to be her tomboy self, knowing that I accepted her, and liked her, for who she was. Naturally athletic, she was intrigued by my position as an athlete, and announced proudly, "Well, you know, I'm a professional backwards runner!" But I think what I will most remember about Megan was how she morphed into a completely different person in the classroom than on the playground. She went from being vivacious and bubbly to meek and insecure. I remember the first time we went from recess into the classroom, I couldn't figure out what had happened. Was she feeling sick? Had we run too much? But as time went on, I noticed that when we were doing something academic, her disposition completely changed. As the weeks went on, I made it my goal to give Megan as much positive feedback as I could in the classroom, hoping to increase her confidence and bring out her natural personality.
It's students like Megan that make me excited to return to volunteering, even after a physically exhausting day of training. The challenge of seeing "what makes them tick" and how to relate to them to inspire and help them improve is a challenge I enjoy even more than the physical challenges I face in training. And the progress of seeing a child gain more confidence in themselves is a success that I cherish often even more than race victories.