Time and Solitude

It's been kind of a thoughtful day for me, and I figured it would be remiss if I didn't write some of the thoughts down.

First, time. Recently, my workouts have consisted of a lot of interval work. For instance, today I did 2 minutes of low resistance high speed, 2 minutes of high resistance and as high as possible speed, for an hour on a bike. Same thing with running a few days ago (as much as the knee will permit!). 2 minutes sprint, 2 minutes light jog.

One of the things I've noticed as I do these types of workouts is that the easy portion always flies by, and the hard portion always drags on and takes forever. I think life is kind of like that sometimes. It's tough for us to really revel in our good times because we're in the moment, but when something bad happens, we really want it to be over, so it seems like it takes forever. I wish there was a way to rewire that part of our brains to make it the opposite, eh? I'll come back to another story about timing after I discuss something else briefly: solitude.

My mom has laughed at me a few times because something I like to do every once in a while is see a movie by myself. Tonight was one of those nights when I felt like I needed to get away, process the recent events of my life, and be alone. I think these types of nights are essential to my functioning as a human being. Reflection is something that often goes undone in today's world. We're a society of constantly doing and doing but never stopping to smell the roses. Alone time is like a battery recharge for my patience and character. I wouldn't be who I am daily without it.

Anyway, I went to see Unbroken, and I rode my motorcycle 45 minutes each way in the freezing cold Korean night to do it. I left campus at 9, and it was chilly, and I was cold, but I knew the way back would be worse. I had brought some hand warmers, and after the movie was over, I heated them up, stuck them in my gloves, and got to riding.

By the time I got home, I couldn't feel my fingers, my legs were tingly, and my toes were near frozen. The stupid hand warmers didn't help much. As I hopped off my motorcycle, all I could think about was getting back to my warm room. I raced up to the door of my building, got almost all the way to my room, and then had an "oh, shit" moment. I'd left the keys in my motorcycle. After a fair amount of cursing under my breath, I went back outside to retrieve them.

To my surprise, it wasn't so cold outside (the wind whipping at 90km/h on a motorcycle apparently makes things colder). As soon as I stepped back out, I noticed a star-filled sky, so clear that every few seconds I was seeing a shooting star or a bright star blinking wildly. I walked slowly down to my motorcycle, neck craned toward the sky, got my keys, and meandered back to the dorm. I was pretty glad I had forgotten my keys.

When I got to my room, I thought to myself, man, isn't timing everything? Sometimes life just works out the way it needs to. Sometimes the universe knows you need to notice the spotlessly starry night, so it makes you an airhead, and then you forget your keys. Sometimes you think you have a plan, but screw your plans. Get ready for life to change them. Just because you're dealt a bad hand doesn't mean you can't play it a certain way. Making plans is a necessary life strategy, but if you can't adapt and figure things out when they go sour, you're stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a raft surrounded by sharks and enemies without food or water (shameless Unbroken reference). And like I said before, when things go sour, like finding yourself on that raft, it tends to last longer rather than shorter. Your brain pays more attention when things go bad. I think the happy people are the most adaptable ones.

I have been happy with my adaption to Korea. Sure, things didn't go as planned, but thank God, or I wouldn't have been there tonight to see those stars. I am not being sarcastic. Life finds a funny way of putting you where you need to be when you need to be there, whether it's your dream or not. We'll see where my next dream takes me.

Also, random, it occurred to me that our bodies need carbs before we workout and protein after perhaps for evolutionary reasons. Like when our ancestors were nomads, what they could gather (berries, nuts, other carbs) was their energy for the hunt, and if they were subsistence hunting or on a long track, they would need that energy, but when they killed the animal, that meal was obviously protein filled. I'm sure this brilliant epiphany is written somewhere by some famous scholar, but I thought about it while I was showering this morning. I digress.

That's been my day. Grocery shopping, Indian food, relaxing, cooking, sending a letter to my dear friend Mary Whitmore (who has become quite the best pen pal), and then the movie/motorcycle/starry night extravaganza. Life is good.

I miss you all at home. I'll catch you on another time.

-Ryan