So Much Can Change In So Little Time

This morning, I was at practice running with my team and I thought it would be a normal practice. I thought we would warm up and go through our drills and do the work-out and cool down and go home. I thought we would all talk about our weeks as we got ready to run and throw around the normal jokes we always throw around.

I thought I would go home feeling sore and then shower and eat my oatmeal and drink my coffee and go about my day. That all happened, but something more too.

We were running at 6:30 in the morning, so naturally we got to see the sun rise. I feel like every day it gets more and more beautiful. This morning, the streaks of deep magenta filled the navy sky, and slowly but surely specks of orange and gold began to join.

The plan was to run in the upper part of the trails to get some hill work in. We started going uphill and just ran, feeling the burn grow in our legs and listening to the steady pounding of each other’s feet. We had been running for about 20 minutes and we reached the top of Cameron Park, commonly known to fellow Waco residents as Lover’s Leap.

We reached the top and slowed down a bit, before finally coming to a stop. The sky was beautiful, the sun just beginning to light up the world. We ran up on top of a cliff to get a better view, and just spinning around and seeing Waco surrounding us made us all stop and forget the watches on our wrists ticking by.

I felt like I was on top of the world.

Looking at the farmland below us, the school in the distance, the colors of the sky filling the world around us, the crisp air wrapping our bodies, the river calm as could be, I felt myself lose my breath. The beauty of the early morning and the world engulfing me was breath taking, it was an experience I had never felt before. My teammate kneeled down and just smiled and said “Wow.” And I couldn’t agree more.

Sometimes, words can’t even describe the situation we’re in, and this was one of those times.

We stood for what felt like an eternity, an eternity much needed. In this moment, I felt happy. True happiness, and it was amazing. I thought about where I am at this point in my life, and then I thought about how I got here. I found this place a little over two years ago and knew this was where I needed to be. Because two years ago I wasn’t happy, I don’t know why exactly. I just knew that two years ago I was crying.

Two years ago I was lost and insecure and uncomfortable and unsure of who I was or where I was meant to go. Two years ago I didn’t know what direction was the right one and who was supposed to stay in my life and who I was supposed to let go of. Two years ago I was crying, internally and externally.

And now I am here, now I am on top of the world.

Now I am actually on top of the world.

We stood there and I spun around and we all basked in the glory of this day together, this wonderful workout and this wonderful company and this wonderful sunrise illuminating the beauty in the most common of trees and blades of grass and chirping birds. I spun around because I was letting go of my tears, I was letting go of my tears because two years ago I was crying but now I am not.

Now I am here in this unexpected moment of gratefulness. Now I am feeling in my heart what it means to be happy, full of warmth and joy and knowledge of the blessings in my life. Now I am where I am meant to be, on top of the world and rising with the colors of the sun.