A Race to the Finish Line

My junior year of high school I joined Team In Training of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society and decided to participate in a fundraiser to do a triathlon. The goal to raise was $2500, which is a lot of money when you have to go around asking for donations and support. I wrote letters to multiple companies that I was associated with either through my parents or 4-H, hand delivering them when I could. In the letters I explained my goal, where the money went, and even had a little bit about my honor patient and long-time family friend and neighbor who was diagnosed with Leukemia to make them more personal.

During the process of the fundraising I was able to visit the children's cancer unit at the U of I hospital and it made my cause even more important. I got to see how the disease not only affected the people who had it, but those close to and around them as well. It broke my heart to see children as young as 2 diagnosed with the often deadly disease, but it touched me to see the hope they had, especially their family when they learned of my cause to raise money for research for the cure.

I had nearly six months to raise the money and was finally able to do it with the support of my family and the community. Sadly though, my honor patient lost his battle with the cancer just over half way through. Seeing and feeling that immediate effect of emotions caused me to work even harder to meet my goal and let those who were involved through me know about it too.

It came race day and I was facing something I honestly wasn't really prepared for, with the minimal amount of training I did do for it. I had a 9/10 mile swim followed by a 40K bike ride and finished with a 10K run. Being a 17 year old it was more than a little intimidating to say the least, but I was going to do it. The daughter of my honor patient came to watch me in the event, and that meant a lot. She was showing her support of my cause by being there, but it meant a lot to her that I was even doing it.

I went through the race, very slowly, but I ended up crossing the finish line about four hours or so later. I ended up enjoying myself quite a bit though it all, but crossing the finish line was when I felt the best. I had accomplished my goal to raise the money and finish that race, but what was interesting was that even though it may have started out for myself, it ended up being for everyone else instead. For those I met along the way who had the cancer, their family members, and everyone else affected by it who I hadn't met.

In college I feel like so many times it's easy to get caught up in homework, friends and other activities that makes it easy to forget about the big picture. Who am I really going to be working for? As an animal science pre-vet major I hope to become a large animal veterinarian, or at the very least work with livestock in some way, but I won't really be working for just myself. I'll be working for all those who will count on me to know about their animals and put their trust in me to help them out. It's a selfless act that I need to keep in mind, to do well not only for myself, but for others. In order to do that in the long run I need to strive to persevere now and make the most of my opportunities that I'm given. Working toward a goal and seeing the effects it can have on others along the way is something that I've seen and been a part of now through TNT. I try to keep a long-term perspective, setting and working toward my goals and someday I will cross another "finish line" and see my hard work paid off.