I'm baaack!

Well, that was a long, long hiatus.  It's been more than three months that I've written and I'm disappointed in myself...even though I know that only Kishor and my mom have been checking back at my site to see if I've updated.

What's happened in the last three months?  Well, I toed the start line of my second Olympic Trials Marathon.  I didn't finish, but I outlined the reasons why here in advance of the race.  Instead, I ran 9 miles in blistering heat at around 6:10-6:15 pace with just under 4 weeks of solid training under my belt.  I was damn proud.  There's a lot more to say on that topic, but I'll save that for another day.

After that, I went to Kauai with my family and best friends.  We hiked, fell in rivers, got our feet muddy, crashed every single resort pool in Poipu, tanned, sang (terribly) to Disney classics, laughed deep belly laughs and ate entirely too much.

And then my life changed. At first, I was terrified and worried, because the future I felt I had a strong hold on, suddenly just slipped through my fingers, right in front of my eyes.  But there's been a reason for my absence.  I needed time to discover that not having any idea what my "future" looks like is one of the greatest gifts life awards us.  In reading The Alchemist, it helped me begin my quest to realize my Personal Legend.  I am finding that anything is possible, it's okay to dream and to yearn for every single thing I would like to see happen to me in my life.  This is how I am taking one step forward, every single day.  I have no ties to anything except the people who care deeply for me and I will march forward with them by my side, both spiritually and physically.

I'll go into more detail later, because I think it's important, but now is not the time.  Currently, my focus has been on building those friendships that I had neglected here in the Bay Area. I want to create a new West Coast family of friends so that I have a solid foundation and community to keep me strong.  Running is obviously a start, but I also want to expand my social circles to others as well, so I joined a rock climbing gym, went to some meetups and frequent the city much more often.  I finally started living out my life in the West, and the first four weeks have been more than I could have ever asked for.

And for this, I am grateful.