Before I left for Paris, I posted a blog about the parallels that I expected to find between my experience running a marathon and my experience studying abroad.
Now that I've been there and back, it's interesting to re-read that post and see how the experience that I anticipated to have matches up with reality—I wasn't too far off!
Since returning to the states, I have thought up some additional parallels between a 26.2 mile race and living abroad. I thought it would be interesting to share.
Being a Marathon Finisher is a source of strength, confidence, and perspective; I am finding that living abroad on my own will probably have a similar role in my life .
When I was around mile #21 of the SF Marathon, my body started freaking out. I can still remember the way that the muscles in my arches cramped up inside my shoes, and the feeling of the last few miles of black streets pounding against my bare feet. (I had to take my shoes off, at the end...) I can still remember how my skin felt dry and ice cold, covered with a salty sediment that had been left behind as all the moisture evaporated from my body. The pain was bad. I had made it 24 miles of a 26 mile race, and I didn't think I would make it. I was going to quit.
But why do I say all this? I suppose I say it because I am here. Right now, I'm sitting on my bed in Davis, cuddled in the morning sunshine. Not an ounce of that pain I felt during the race afflicts me now. Most of all, my bib number from July 31st is pinned to my wall—it's proof that I did finish.
That was months and months ago now, I made it through, and though it was pretty difficult, it's over... and I'm a little stronger.
When I'm in pain, or something feels insurmountable, I sometimes think of that race. Even after it was over, it continued to hurt for a while (as is often the case with trials), but it's a source of strength.
When we reach back in our past experiences, we can extract the pain and turn it to strength of equal intensity.
But while the struggle was just one fleeting moment, a memory can be accessed and extricated infinitely. It can be magnified, modified, and applied.
So... Was living in the City of Love really that painful that I can compare it to my excruciating-mile-22-of-a-Marathon experience?
In a word, no. Not even close!
but... I do see it similarly in my life.
Now that I'm back at UC Davis, I suddenly feel so much more capable… It seems that after months of feeling like an idiot every day, because even simple tasks are immensely difficult when attached to cultural and linguistic barriers, I now feel like I can do anything. Life feels a little bit easier; it makes a little bit more sense.
It's hard to talk about my experience in Paris. It's hard to explain what exactly I learned, how I grew, how I changed, or why I even went. I'm sure in time I will begin to be able to process how this experience is going to fit into my life.
All I know for sure is that a few screws and bolts used to jingle around in my "life-skills" tool box, but I feel like I came home from France with a full-on mechanic's shop.
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