The Choices We Face

Sometimes I get incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of choices there are for everything. The internet has created a limitless amount of choices as it provides everything we could ever need or want. With the click of a button, we can do anything from ordering a pizza to buying a trip to Jamaica. We have access to see all of the job opportunities all over the world, and we can see what everyone else is doing with their lives. We have the technology to travel wherever we want, and learn whatever we want. With all of the possibilities, sometimes it’s hard to make a decision as you are constantly thinking whether it’s the right choice or not.

The more I stress out about doing things the right way, the more I become selfish and forget to think of others. I do make sure I’m grateful for what I have, but with what’s going on in the world right now I have re-adjusted my thinking about having too many choices. Some people don’t have a choice. Some people have to take what they are given and work with it. They have to think and act in certain ways in order to stay safe. Unfortunately, living in a small town in Canada, I forget what minorities are going through.

I have been privileged my whole life so I have no idea what it would be like to be treated differently because of the colour of my skin. It wasn’t until now that I realized being silent and ignoring the situation, just because it doesn’t affect me, is not helping the situation. I am learning along with many others on how I can help. I have high hopes about the next generations as we are becoming more and more accepting the more we learn about what it means to be human.

I think that experiencing the pandemic as well as the Black Lives Matter movement has given us all a chance to stop and think about what is going on in the world around us. We have now felt what it is like to have limited choices by staying at home, and having less freedom for where we can go and what we can do. I also never thought in a million years I would be laid off for any reason, so experiencing that has also helped me gain some insight.

This has also been a wake up call for what really matters in this world. Not being able to see friends and family or to go to community events has made me realize how much I cherish being around people. Watching how big of a difference it can make if we all stand together whether it’s to support each other through quarantine, or protesting against human rights, has been inspiring. Realizing how grateful I am for the life that I’ve had and the position I’ve been given, being a Caucasian Canadian, there is no reason for me to stress out about the small stuff.

If it’s too many choices that I’m stressing about, I can now take a step back and realize it doesn’t matter what I do, I will likely be in a better position than someone else, and that’s a humbling thought that I will be grateful for. I look forward to speaking up and sticking together during this whirlwind of a year.

The First Run – Training for a 10k

Oh god. My friend asked me to do a 10k run with her at the end of June. They have made it a virtual race, meaning the warm up will be done on Facebook live, the free merchandise will be mailed to us, and they will post the route prior to the day of the race… then I suppose we will just record our time? It’s cool to see how everyone is trying to adapt to COVID-19.

Anyways, I am not a runner. I enjoy strength training and can sprint while I’m playing sports, but long distance running is not my thing. I told my friend I could maybe handle a 5k run, which is an option, but I kind of want to challenge myself because I pretty much don’t have an excuse. I have a running buddy, I have all the time in the world, the weather is beautiful, and I have an end goal.

I immediately got my inhaler prescription renewed (which was expired for two years… what can I say, I hate cardio so therefore I tend to avoid it). I dusted off my old runners and planned the flattest route I could think of around my neighbourhood. My friend is planning a running schedule for us starting on Monday, but I had to test out just how bad my cardio was.

This morning I woke up, didn’t even look at my phone, warmed up a bit then began walking towards my path. I didn’t bring my phone or music or water or anything because I didn’t want to complicate the process – this will need to be fine-tuned later on. And so, I began a light jog.

I felt like I weighed 500 lbs. I could feel every part of my body dragging me down, confused that it wasn’t sitting on a couch. My muscles didn’t know how to wake up, and my spine just wanted to crumple into a terrible posture. I had lead feet and my knees were weak. How have I let my cardio go so far downhill?!

After a very, very short amount of time, I began to walk. I continued this method of running a little, then walking a lot, the whole way. It was quite painful in all sorts of ways. I was thinking back to when I played soccer and volleyball in high school, and how good my cardio was. However, back then I wasn’t very strong. So now I am somewhat strong but have terrible cardio. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I was both strong AND had good cardio?! Hmm… perhaps that could be a reality.

By the end I was completely out of breath and it had only been about half an hour. I did some long stretches when I got home, feeling good that I gave it a whirl. Not to mention, it was a gorgeous morning so I’m also glad I went outside.

I looked up “best breakfast to have after a run” for further motivation and excitement, even though I already know what my body needs. I chose the oatmeal and peanut butter option, topped with vanilla greek yogurt, cinnamon, and sliced banana. This happens every time I’ve tried to get into running. I get all excited and motivated for a couple of days until I realize it’s super not fun. I even made green tea… which is probably the last thing I would choose to drink in the morning, but I know it’s good for me.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to seeing my proper running schedule that I’ll do with my friend. She will be the person I need to keep me motivated and we can push each other to reach our goal. This just may be my chance to actually run a 10k.

A Random Act of Kindness – Austrian Edition

I want to tell this story because I still feel guilty about how my random act of kindness actually turned out.

I was on my way into the Innsbruck, Austria Airport for my journey over to London, England. My cousins dropped me off and I made my way to the check-in line up.

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me say, “excuse me,” and I turned around to see a woman with her elderly mother who was holding a suitcase. The woman said “my mother is travelling to London, but she can’t speak English, would you be able to help her through the airport and get her on a Taxi once you land in London?”

Without hesitation, I said yes. Her mother and I exchanged smiles and awkwardly made our way through the check-in line. She spoke the language at this point so she ended up helping me out too. We sat together in the waiting area with nothing to talk about, but we did play a bit of charades. She went to the bathroom and waved for me to look after her bag, so I did.

When she got back, she opened up her suitcase and took out a monstrous chocolate bar. It was huge, I have no idea where she got it from. She then handed it over to me and said “danke” which happened to be one of the words I understood. I assumed she was thanking me for helping her, even though I hadn’t yet got her in a taxi in London as requested by her daughter. I took the chocolate bar, with a bit of hesitation, then we continued to sit in silence.

We ended up being on opposite ends of the plane so I didn’t see where she was sitting, but it wasn’t anywhere near my seat. I decided that I would wait for everyone to get off the plane once we landed to be able to find her, assuming that she would also wait since she was an older lady.

We landed in London, and I waited… and waited… for everyone to get off of the plane. I finally stood up, and found absolutely no one left on the plane. I looked up and down the aisles and couldn’t find anyone. I assumed she decided to wait in the hallway for me so she could get out of the way of everyone. I hustled over to the hallway and started walking towards customs. She was nowhere to be found.

I started worrying a little bit, thinking she got lost and was unable to communicate with anyone. I couldn’t find her anywhere. I was going through the customs line up along with everyone else on the flight, and was still looking around frantically like a crazy person.

As I was deep into the middle of the line and contained by the retractable belt barriers, I glanced through the crowd and saw my old lady friend. I could barely see her through hundreds of people, but I saw her standing with her suitcase and talking to one of the security staff. I kept watching to try and read her body language if she was trying to find me. Then I saw another staff member come with a wheelchair and a trolley for her suitcase and they started making their way to the exit.

I wasn’t able to go help her because I was trapped in the line up, and was too far away for her to see me wave. I felt as though I failed my mission, but I was relieved to see that it was staff that was helping her out and not some other stranger. Even though I only spent a short amount of time in silence with her, I still became attached after being responsible for her. I could tell she was a very happy little lady, and I was sad that I couldn’t say goodbye.

A while later as I was on the train to my destination, I realized I still had the giant chocolate bar. I received a reward for something I didn’t actually do. I got her on the plane, in her own country, and then lost her in the English-speaking country where she needed me the most. Oops.

…It was a delicious chocolate bar though.

How a Dog Became My Best Friend

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling — Simon 2011-2019

Growing up I had always wanted a golden retriever. They are big lovable beautiful dogs, but I had never known that one day a golden retriever would be my best friend – it sounded a bit cliché.

We got Simon when I was in high school and he was the sweetest most adorable fluffy puppy. Despite all of the mischief he got himself into, it was really hard to get mad at him. I had so much fun training him and looked forward to spending our time together each training session. He was smart and picked things up quickly. Not to mention, he loved attention and you could scratch his head for hours on end and he wouldn’t leave.

Simon loved food of all varieties and sometimes it got him into trouble. I remember one day I slaved away making homemade pear and asiago ravioli. I even made the pasta from scratch – little squares cut to perfection. They needed to be carefully laid out onto cookie sheets, with a dollop of mix to fill the middle section of the pasta. Then, I had dabbed water around the outside edge to stick the pasta squares together. One by one. Once I was finished I needed to sit down since I had just spent 7 hours on my feet in the kitchen. It had only made enough to fill two cookie sheets after all that effort. All of a sudden, I heard a loud bang coming from the kitchen – it startled me as I had no idea what it could be. Ten seconds later, my mom and I ran over to check what had happened. Simon had somehow eaten a whole cookie sheet of uncooked hand crafted pear and asiago ravioli in TEN SECONDS. I don’t even think he took a breath in the time it took him to demolish about 30 raviolis. At the time, I was sooooooooo mad, but now, it’s kind of funny.

Simon turned out to be a bit stubborn, especially when he didn’t want to go back into the car after a walk. He would just lay on the pavement when we tried to guide him in with the leash. Also, for everyone except my mom, he would only come if he felt like it. Most of the time he just continued to enjoy the outdoors until he was ready to obey. He also somehow got full control over when he wanted to get pet. You would be enjoying a nice beverage with friends and family until all of a sudden a big wet nose would sneak under your arm, begin to push its way all the way under as you spill your drink, until you give in to head scratches.

Simon gave a nice balance of stubbornness and sweetness. As soon as you were annoyed with his attitude he would walk over and sit right beside you, or put his head in your lap. Anger was never a result of his presence. It always ended in love, and all he wanted was to love his humans. You could tell that despite his strong head, he was very happy with the people around him. Whenever you walked by him laying on his side on the floor, you would just hear the “thump, thump, thump” of his waging tail. He would give a bit of a side glance expecting you to give in and pet his soft, glorious fur.

Unfortunately, Simon had to stay behind with my parents while I went to university. I would always look forward to seeing him on holidays… oh and my parents of course… because he would give the biggest most enthusiastic welcome. His entire body would wiggle when he saw me – he would do this to anyone he hadn’t seen for a while, even to my parents after they got home from work. But not seeing him for months at a time gave him an even bigger more extreme body wiggle. No matter how stressed out I was about school or anything at all, just having him sit with me would calm me down. In return, I had a certain position I could put him in to relax him when he was feeling agitated. Please see below.

Simon gave a large dose of joy to whoever he met and I’m happy that he became my best friend during the time he was on this earth. He also filled in as my parents’ child while they had to experience the “empty nest” syndrome. Although I don’t think another dog could compare to Simon, I think we all need a fluffy goofball in our lives. I look forward to finding myself another best friend that I can share a whole new set of memories with.