On goals and growing up

My friend Theresa showed me an essay today that her 12-year old daughter wrote on her goals. She wrote of her 5-, 10-, and 20-year goals--what she hoped to accomplish and why. Turns out that she wants to be an engineer (which cracked me up because, from the stories Theresa has told me, she loves math and thinks like an engineer--even at 12) and wants to go to Purdue (her parents' alma mater)--I'm thinking I'll start getting some red and gold Iowa State stuff sent her way and see what I can do to change her mind. Regardless, I hope her hopes and dreams come true (even if they change over time, which I'm sure they will)...

It was a statement in her paragraph on her 20-year goals that got me thinking, though...she wrote that in 20 years she'll be 32. A true statement, most definitely, but as I'm almost 32, it got me thinking about my goals in life and if I'm where I thought I would be when I was 12. I think that answer is not even close...if memory serves, I wanted to be a judge when I was 12 (thanks to Sandra Day O'Connor)...a far cry from the food engineer-type person that I am today. Beyond occupation, though, I don't think I could've pegged where I am today even 2 years ago, let alone 20.

I've never really had personal goals or dreams--seems kind of weird, but where my friends had thoughts of being married and raising children, I'd always substitute a professional goal instead. I think that's the biggest thing that's changed in my life through my WW journey--now I have personal goals, which in turn has led to a much better balance in my life. Admittedly, my personal goals probably don't seem as lofty as getting married or starting a family to most people, but to me, they're darn near everything. I'm losing weight to make my life better, and I'm doing both the marathon and IM to prove to myself that I'm a new person. Once I get through those, I'll work on the next round of goals...but I think those are big enough for now. Who knows--maybe I'll follow Emily's lead and write an essay of my own goals and dreams at some point...then again, I'm finding that life is a whole lot more intriguing if I just tackle each challenge and new adventure as it comes.

From a training standpoint, this week has gone well so far--it's the most aggressive week of my marathon training program so far, but I'm more than halfway through the whole program. I'm also still fighting a little cold, which is just more annoying than anything at this point. I'm finding that 8-mile runs are pretty brutal to squeeze in before work, especially when I have meetings first thing in the morning--for a non-morning person, getting up early enough to get my runs in has been a challenge. I'm meeting Michele at the fitness center at 5:45 tomorrow morning--we both have commitments rather early, but that darn 8-mile pace run is beckoning. We ran the 7-mile pace run last Friday together, too--other than the fact that I paced us too fast and that she kicked my butt on the sprint at the end, it seems like we're fairly well matched for training runs...we'll see if that holds true again tomorrow. Then, it's a 17-miler on Sunday...that will be 2 miles longer than I've ever run before. Every day's a new adventure...