As I flipped through a newspaper at work the other day, a story caught my eye. Apparently, a group of people got together and swam across the Chesapeake Bay. \t\u201cDon’t they know there’s a perfectly good bridge right there,\u201d I said to a co-worker.<\/p>\n
Now I know this is an annual event which raises money for charity, but I just don’t understand why someone would look at a body of water like the Chesapeake, then look at the bridge and still come to the conclusion that swimming is a good option.<\/p>\n
My boss told me that the people \u2013 some of whom have actually taken on this task 20 times \u2013 do it for the challenge. That’s what I figured, but I told her that I thought conquering challenges like that was way overrated.<\/p>\n
I’m not saying that I have no ambition. I do. I just think people should spend their time doing ambitious things that don’t seem so crazy.<\/p>\n
Maybe I’m a little jaded because of some other things I have seen in the news lately. I think my opinion is affected by the coverage I have seen coming from Mount Everest.<\/p>\n
This apparently is climbing season at the world’s tallest mountain, which means lots of people feel the need to say they climbed the world’s tallest mountain.<\/p>\n
What these people don’t seem to understand is that people die trying to climb Everest. And not just a few. I heard a veteran climber speaking a few weeks ago about the number of deaths each year on Everest almost casually. It’s just part of the deal, he said.<\/p>\n
Why this hasn’t scared off every average person from going anywhere near Everest, I’ll never know. They have sent cameras up with climbers. The movie version is much safer.<\/p>\n
I learned a long time ago to stay within certain limits. I had brothers who all ran cross country at some point in their lives, and they encouraged me to do the same to prepare for wrestling season.<\/p>\n
I didn’t need long to realize that I didn’t like running long distances. Sure, I had to so some running to get in shape and lose weight, but I didn’t want to overdo it.<\/p>\n
That didn’t strop me from running a 10K one spring in high school. My feet swelled up so bad that I missed most of my girlfriend’s graduation because I couldn’t get shoes back on my feet.<\/p>\n
Even with that, I signed up for a triathlon a year later at my high school. You ran a few miles first, then rode the bike for a while, then swam a bunch of laps in the pool. I barely survived.<\/p>\n
Somewhere on the biking leg, I pulled a muscle in my shoulder. I could barely lift my arm over my head during the swimming portion. I had to do sidestroke and a modified breast stroke.<\/p>\n
But I finished. I don’t think I finished in last place, although that really didn’t matter in the whole scheme of things because I learned a very valuable lesson.<\/p>\n
Don’t try and do too much because, one day, you might find yourself ignoring a perfectly good bridge and swimming across a large body of water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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