I'm going to try to keep tonight's post short and, well...pretty darn sweet. Another cold day here in New Brunswick, NJ but that wasn't going to keep my spirits down. I had an amazing second day of student teaching at the middle school and am pretty confident that I want to start out teaching at the middle school level. Now, I know it's only been two days, but I have truly had such positive experiences with the students and my cooperating teacher these past two days.
So on top of some meeting three periods worth of new students today (approx. 70 students), my cooperating told me, during a conversation we were having, that he would see if there is or will be a job opening to help coach the track team at the high school where he coaches football. I'm pretty sure he could see my ear-to-ear smile I was holding in, but thankfully he didn't comment! Hopefully that plan and my plan to substitute teach in New Brunswick work out.
After school I went for a 90 minute run in place of an 8 mile workout I was going to do. Somehow I thought a 90 minute slow run would be better than an 8 mile workout...I couldn't be more wrong. Because it was so cold and I ran in shorts (don't worry; I was appropriately covered up everywhere else), I ended up running a quicker pace, but that wasn't enough to keep my legs warm. I'm pretty sure they were numb when I got back to my apartment. I'm also pretty sure that the temperature dropped about 10 degrees on my way back (out-and-back run) when the sun dipped behind the buildings. Guess I learned a few things from this run so it wasn't all that bad.
I'm pretty tired at this point in the evening, but I would like to share with you what Val and I stopped to do on our way back to the apartment. After dinner we went out to get some coffee and some kind of vegan snack--cookies were on our mind--and on our drive we looked for a certain homeless man that frequents a convenience store area asking for change. A few days ago we both saw him and bought him a few food items from that convenience store, but this time he wasn't to be found. On our way back from the George St. Co-Op where we decided to go, we saw Billy, the homeless man, and I quickly swerved into the alley-way parking lot next to the convenience store. We re-introduced ourselves as he only remembered our faces and we asked him if he'd like something hot to drink and some food. "I'd love some coffee if you could," he told us. Well Val wouldn't have it that way. After asking where we can get coffee for him, she asked him if he'd like to come with us. So the three of us went for his coffee at a small food place that served every kind of food Val and I would not normally be buying for somebody (e.g. burgers, chicken sandwiches, gyros, etc.). I wasn't about to go into a fast-food place and not offer him some food so he was quite happy to be getting a beef gyro for the night (sorry, cow--I mean this). Although it goes against our philosophy of food, I didn't know how long it'd be since this man had a hot meal and I wasn't about to narrow his options down to french fries and onion rings.
Billy was so appreciative of the generosity we displayed, but I think we should be looking at this in another way. Instead of "generosity" I hope you see this as "humanity". It's easy to say, "No, sorry" to a homeless person asking you for change and the guilt may only last a few seconds, maybe a minute at most before our minds move on to the task at hand. But I can promise you that if you changed that answer to, "Sure, here you go," or offered him/her some food instead, then instead of guilt will be a feeling that is difficult to name, but wonderful to experience. And the good thing about it is that unlike guilt, it won't go away; this feeling will stay with you and you'll want to do it again. We can all make this world a much better place if we just started saying "Okay" or "Yes" to those in need. Our time is cherished, but so should be all the people with whom we share this world.
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Today's run: 90 minute run, 11.5 miles
Pre-run fuel: a Honey Stinger Honey Waffle (I know. I know. Honey. Val and I have slowly been weening ourselves off of it, but for now it is still in our diet)
Post-run recovery: Val made hot soup again for dinner and boy did I need it after the run!
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