The first one.

So today I am making my blogging debut. I sit here in my apartment in Waco anticipating departure for "home" tomorrow. Although I don't so much look forward to it. I'm not too sure where "home" is, really. I've spent enough time away from Kansas to say that it has become a little unfamiliar, yet Waco isn't quite home either. Either way, this summer will be a different kind of summer, different from the last several. As of today, I have only 43 days until Europe. Paris, Barcelona, and Rome await!

Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this blog is. Maybe it has several: document this summer's experiences and training.

What hit me this afternoon was how much change I am going to encounter in the next twelve months. This week's graduation for the class of 2010 was a preview of all I have coming my way next year. I realized that this summer I will be filling out the paperwork confirming my enrollment at Baylor College of Medicine. This summer is my last true summer at home, as a "non-adult." And this fall, I will be a college senior, experiencing my final welcome week, my final undergraduate homecoming, my final Tri Delta recruitment and Pigskin. But all of these endings are merely beginnings to something new. I will start my first cross country season, my first semester as a "student-athlete" (crazy, right?). I will begin planning my new life in Houston; I will be living there in a little over a year! I don't feel old enough for this. I should still be sitting on my dorm bed in Collins thinking about rush and studying for those classes that used to be easy.

But back to the present: I revived the training for cross country again today after nearly a week off from a strained left knee and shin. I can't believe what a week off can do to my fitness! Maybe part of it was the humidity that has finally found Waco. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to get up early enough to get in a run before the long drive tomorrow. Not promising anything! At least the pain in my leg is nearly gone. Rest does wonders. The first few days of pain I thought I could push through it, which would have been ideal if I were participating in a race. So the first eight minutes of each run would be a little painful, but soon the aching would subside and I'd be able to run the normal distance...bad idea! It only perpetuated the pain, which I'd feel about an hour after completing my workout.