Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Reinventing Yourself

I keep thinking about my old high school classmate who's now marathoning in a wheelchair (see below). Not sure why. Perhaps because of the way he's faced adversity and reinvented himself.

I just found out that he finished the Los Angeles Marathon last month, and I saw a picture of him online: Wearing sunglasses and a dark blue micro-tech shirt, he looked very determined, yet cool, while crossing the finish.

I'd like to talk to him and catch up - and compare marathon notes, natch. But we ran in different crowds in high school. And it's been eons since then. We went to a huge Southern California high school - about 3,600 students - and I'm not sure he would remember me.

Speaking of reinventing oneself, here's a 200-word personal essay on just that in the Health section of today's Washington Post. These essays are submitted by readers who are baby boomers (at least 42 years old).

I just helped a friend, P., write his. I'll let you know if it gets accepted.

4 comments:

  1. Ooh, that's gotta be sweet, having a professional journalist help you write an essay to a paper. I'll be shocked if it doesn't get picked, Bex.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is a great story! I should write one of those. I started out as PhD candidate in science and then got into technology and I know there's something else coming up - I just haven't figured out what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It IS sweet--it's cheating!!! :) ha ha just kidding. since you'll be helping me next!
    btw, you fell off my bloglines with the new name and all. LIKE IT!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Y'all should write a short personal essay. It's a great writing exercise, and helps focus you on why you do the things you do ....

    ReplyDelete