#8 - Tell everyone I love I love them

This one was really important to me. I don't think you can ever really tell people you care about that you care about them enough. And sometimes they're gone before you can fix it. Plus, they just deserve to know.

I wanted to do this personal to each person I really wanted to tell. So some people got a visit. Some people got a letter. Some people got a conversation. Some were spur of the moment.

I wanted to add something to it though, so I ordered 50 silicone bands (thanks for the idea, Casey Jordan) as little love-you tokens. I had them printed with "Enjoy the Struggle." 

 

I used that for 3 reasons.

1. Printing bands with "I Love You," while appropriate seemed a little weird for people to wear around.

2 & 3 are both because of Rachel Townsend. I first met Rachel when she was the student teacher for my aerobics class when I was a senior in high school. When I graduated, she took a full-time position at my high school and coached cross country and soccer. The girls loved her. She coined the phrase "Enjoy the Struggle" for the cross country team to remind them that the challenge and the hurt made them stronger and they should enjoy that growth. I find it such an inspirational saying. Especially after the last couple years where I have had lots of frustrations. It reminds me to keep in mind that I'm becoming a better me by surviving these things. Rachel entered my life again when I started working for Kidsport, a summer camp put on by the Michigan PE department. She was the Assistant Director. The kids loved her. And then again, when I started student teaching at Pioneer High School and her husband, a former UM football player, was one of the PE teachers there. I was weirdly connected to her in so many ways even though she & I were never close. She was always such an inspiration though. Smiling and strong and loving and pretty and fit. Things girls want to be.


In the fall of 2003, my grandma died. It was really tough. I never felt like I told her I loved her enough nor spent enough time with her near the end because it was so hard to see her sick.

When my family was on our way the funeral, which was just a graveside visit, I had to stop at work at Saline Community Education. I was out of it but I noticed people were talking about something that had happened. I didn't comprehend it until I checked my voicemail and there was a voicemail saying that Rachel Townsend had died suddenly.

Rachel and a friend had the goal of running marathons and qualifying for Boston. They came to Chicago for the 2003 race. Rachel ran her heart out and qualified for Boston. But then dropped dead in the chute. She didn't even make it to the hospital. She had a freak heart defect that no one knew about. And it never would have mattered if she hadn't pushed herself to such a tough goal.

Her service was the opposite of my grandmother's. My grandma's was small, just our small family.

Rachel was in my high school gym with people I knew from high school, college, UM athletics, my PE classes, and Kidsport. It was surreal. I knew each speaker personally except her sister: my cross country coach, my track coach, my favorite PE teacher, a former cross country teammate, and finally her husband showed a slide show of the weekend.

Since then, I write Enjoy the Struggle on my running shoes and sometimes other things. And I keep her in mind, especially when I run. That when things get tough, we get tougher.

I put it on my bracelets to remind me to Enjoy the Struggle and to remind me that I have some wonderful people who will always support me through my struggles and I will support them and help them get stronger. I also chose that because Rachel went so suddenly and I would never want any of the people I love to not know that I love them. And how much.

So all of you out there, I love you. Thank you for
your support.











Enjoy the Struggle.