A lot of people have been asking me why I am running. Most people assume that it’s to lose weight. Here is the real reason: I grew up as the Tubby kid at school. My mom took me shopping in the Husky section of the department store, but my pants were always still a little too long, because while I was big, I most certainly was not tall. I spent my entire childhood with one hand on the back of my pants, constantly trying to hoist them back up as they slid down my waist. I was short, I was fat, and I usually had only one hand free. It is no surprise that I was always picked last in gym class, usually just after the kid with braces on his legs ( at least he could shoot a decent 3). It got to the point that I just avoided all gym and recess activities as best that I could. I had a fair number of bullies. I had been labeled The Tubby Kid, and that label has followed me throughout my life. Before you get the wrong idea, I actually had a lot of friends in school. By the time I got to High School, I loved everything about school... even gym class. I had befriended my past bullies. I owe that to my sense of humor, and to my Dad, who always preached the power of attitude; the power in choosing how to view your world. Looking back, my humor was mostly self-deprecating, and instead of focusing on the negative connotations of being the tubby kid, I became the loud and jovial tubby kid - the life of the party. But I was still always the tubby kid. I owned that label and made it work for me. But I have always remained trapped within that label. The label imposed on me by others and reinforced by my own self, had entrapped me, it had limited my possibilities. Decades later, seeing my own kids developing their labels, both positive and negative, makes me cringe. As parents we believe that our children’s future possibilities are unlimited. We tell them that they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up, and we, mostly, believe that. But, as bullies, friends, teachers, and siblings begin to trap our children into a single neat box; simplifying a complicated, miraculous and boundless soul, into a loaded but limited word like: “Tubby” or “Nerd” or “Dyslexic”, we see their possibilities shrinking before our eyes. The tubby kid can be ANYTHING, except an athlete, or cool, or a ladies man, or healthy…. he certainly can not be a marathon runner. I have always told my son that he can be anything he wants to be, but now labeled as dyslexic, others are convincing him that yes he CAN be anything... anything except an author, or a journalist, or smart, or normal… As I see him slowly growing into his labels, dismissing school as something he just isn’t good at, choosing detention over reading in front of his class because he is just too embarrassed to let others hear him read, refusing to write more than a couple sentences of his homework each night, it makes me angry. It makes me angry to see human potential squashed where it should be nurtured. It makes me angry to see this complex, compassionate and intelligent kid, reduced to his lowest common denominator. That is why I am running. I am the Tubby runner, as I hope one day my son will feel empowered and bold enough to be the dyslexic author. I am running in order to spit in the face of stereotypes, and to reject limitations imposed on us by others and by ourselves. Our minds and our willpower are more powerful than any physical challenges we face. Attitude is everything. There is no reality beyond our own perception. -See you at the finish line. @TubbyRunning (Follow me on Twitter!)
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 16:15:14 +0000
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