A Young Professional In Seacrh of A Future

Dear Barbara (Walters),

I don’t know if it can be true, but it appears that I may be your third friend request on Myspace. I can’t help but hope that if this is the case perhaps my message will get to you sooner than when you shortly have 250 friends and I am simply another wanna be hoping to reach you.

I assume many will want to leave you messages of admiration, comments of support, praise for your journalism talent, provide feedback, perhaps even ideas for your TV and radio shows. I write you in hopes of defining a dream and linking with a resource who can guide that dream. I am looking for a mentor.

I write to you as en educated, college graduate with a Masters degree. A young professional who works at a top Consulting firm in the US. A volunteer of charities and a part time gymnastics coach. I write to you unsatisfied and confused as to how I attained a job and began my career knowing without a doubt, I arrived by wrong turns.

I want to be a television host, maybe even a radio personality. My degrees never enhanced nor assisted in leading me to a career that was a best fit – a career that made sense. I love talking, interacting, researching, learning, and sharing. I am not a sit-behind-the-desk, paper pushing, uniform wearing type of girl. I am loud, bold, outgoing, dynamic, sensitive, relatable, witty, and a sometimes confident woman.

Barbara, in convincing myself to go after my best fit I have limited faith that I too can be a story of unlikely success without a little miracle from someone like yourself. If you for any reason want to help and mentor me towards this dream, message me back on MySpace – this grand communicative technology that allows the ordinary to reach the extraordinary with a few thoughtful sentences and the push of a button.

Sincerely,

Danielle

Grown up.

And one day I was a grown up.

I was driving home, stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. I hoped I’d made it to the town high school in time to vote for our election of local politicians. I worked ten plus hours today. After voting I was going to have to cook dinner and then clean up the kitchen – load the dishwasher, wipe off the table and place mats, wrap the leftovers, clean the oven and surfaces. Exhausting. It’s the sixth of the month. Darn it, all the bills are due – must write those checks tonight. Pick out clothes for work tomorrow. Pack my gym bag. Make my lunch. Check Perez, People, TMZ and My Space. Work on updating my resume and check job listings. Get six hours of sleep. Wake up and start the next day…stuck in traffic and running late, again.

Health Tip 102 From a Non-Health Fanatic

Run! It is very simple. It doesn't require you to count calories. You don't have to think about portion control. And you do not have to do it more than once a day.

I initially believed that I could start to exercise, not diet, and still somehow manage to lose weight. After a month of proving myself wrong I decided to pay attention to the foods I shoved in my mouth and increase my exercise schedule to not only include 3 days of outdoor conditioning with a trainer but added 2 additional days of self hell - running around my neighborhood.

When running short distances in my conditioning class, I could barely keep up. I kept my inhaler in hand, breathed as if I was giving birth, and regularly stopped in the middle of the lap walking my way back to the finish line. It was embarrassing. I was pathetic. I could not believe I was this out of shape. I did not want to forever be the girl in last place.

I came home, put my work out clothes on, added some motivating music to my Ipod, grabbed my inhaler (just in case) and set out to make it around the one-mile circular roadway adjacent to my apartment complex. I jogged down a small hill and then walked to the first house on the left. Once I reached the mailbox I jogged to the Fire Station on the right. I walked down hill about 15 feet and then attempted to jog up a step hill on a major incline. It helped that the road parallel to this hill is extremely busy with traffic and I reminded myself that if I stopped jogging now all the people stuck at the red light would witness me quitting. In disbelief I made it to the top of hill.

And so I have continued my schedule of running the one-mile lap, shortening the distances in between my sprints and my walking. I know for most, especially those overweight and out of shape, the idea of running, not even the act of it - sickens you. You would rather starve yourself. Only eat vegetables. Never eat bread or any other kind of carb again. Perhaps you can walk you ask? The answer is No. You cannot walk! You cannot starve yourself! You cannot attempt to try and fail again at any of the million fad diets you have already tried in your crusade to look great and feel well. It will not work. Get your ass up and run.

I don't care if you run for ten feet, walk for forty, and then run for another ten. You need to start somewhere. You can run off the fat. I promise. I did it. And every time I ran I reminded myself that I was running the weight off (literally).

I would run and think about the red pair of pants I wanted so desperately to fit into. I would run and imagine looking in the mirror and not thinking 'I looked fat'.

I would run and think about the fight I had with my fiancé, the bills I needed to pay, the job I loved that I didn't have. Over weeks and the following months running became "my" time - it was fifteen minutes in which I self evaluated, it was the time where I pushed my body's limits, reminded myself of its purpose, envisioned the results of each step, and cleared my head of the days thoughts.

There are days I run longer distances than others. There are many days when I move slower, walk more, and curse the whole time I am pushing myself up and down the hills that I move over during the one-mile run. However, the one consistent is that I run - 5 days a week - when I feel like it and when I don't. I do this for myself. I do this for my body. I do this so the days I feel good about myself outnumber the days I feel fat!

It works. I was able to wear those red pants. And guess what? Now even the red pants do not fit --- they are too big.

A Few Tips To Consider:

• Use landmarks to set short term goals. Run to the stop sign and then walk to the intersection. Run to the willow tree and then walk to the fire hydrant. Every two weeks change the landmarks so that there are longer distances in between the starting and ending points.


• Listen to music. Music can distract you and motivate you. Who doesn't get pumped up when ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ is blasting in your headset? On days that I really did not want to run I would purchase a few new songs from Itunes so that I had something to look forward to during the run.


• Self talk. Use the time you run to remind yourself why you are subjecting your body to this physical activity. Envision the results you want to get out of your run - imagine yourself in that black sexy cocktail dress or two-piece bikini.