I have my middle school best friend to thank for getting me into running. Little did I know how this one decision would still be affecting my life as a sophomore in college.

At first, cross country was a way to keep in shape, hang out with my friends and be a part of something. As I trained and noticed improvements, it became so much more. It was not just a sport. Running gave me a yearning to push myself to go forward, and gave me a sense of empowerment I had never felt with anything else before.

Running, to most people, is seen as something they must do or should do. A task, a “job” that is required for them to stay in shape. If this is true, they haven’t seen the beauty that lies beneath that. Each run is unlike any other. One day, I feel like I could run for an infinite number of miles while other days my typical five feel as though the finish line is nonexistent. Fighting through the hurt, pushing my body as hard as I can to get through it, I know in the back of my mind that I am becoming stronger than the week, day and mile before. This encourages me and gives me a reason to wake up the next morning and do it again.

College is demanding. It affects you emotionally, physically and mentally. You have responsibility after responsibility and it develops into more than demanding, but draining. When I’m having a bad day, when I’m stressed, when it’s a beautiful day, when it’s whatever… I go for a run. When you think about it, college is a lot like running: you have good days, you have bad days. A run gives me the power to believe that I cannot be touched, that nothing can slow me down. I escape to a new world where my concerns of yesterday, last week, or ones to come in the future do not exist. This feeling is what gives me the strength to get through those rough, not so perfect days.

On some of my more difficult days, it’s running that saved me. Those days when the last thing I wanted to do was run, I remembered how I would feel after I ran. I’m not sugarcoating running -- it is hard, it hurts, and it takes a lot out of you. But it also gives you something so much more than physical pain. It makes you want to set goals and reach them, feel good about life, and yourself. It gives me a place that I can call my own. A place that when running, is my time and no one can take that time away from me.

You have to start somewhere. Coming from someone who was just thrown into running on a whim, I will never regret it. Going from a menial middle school team to varsity in high school, it has developed into one of the biggest parts of my life, and I would be lost without this outlet. My advice to anyone: go for a run.