Life may give you a negative, but don't despair, it may just develop into a beautiful picture one day. This year, I realized my theory that I have on life. Life is like a 300m hurdle race. Since, I run the 300m hurdles, I would know what the race is like.

The first thing to any race is worrying about whether you are going to win or not. This relates to worrying about the petty things in life.

Does it really matter if you win? Is it really going to be the end of the world? Or will you be upset if you lose and then forget about it?

In life we worry too much and live in the moment too little.

Next, is the lining up in our own individual lanes. We each start at different spots, but the race is still the same distance for everyone. This relates our lives taking us to different places, and putting us in different situations, but hopefully we will end up in the same place, but maybe at different times.

Now comes the beginning of the race. We all try to keep up with everyone and pace ourselves on other people. This symbolizes that at times in everyone's lives that we worry about fitting in or being the same as other people, instead of worrying about being unique. If everyone were the same, the world would be incredibly boring.

Now comes the 1st hurdle. This hurdle is the easiest to get over because you are not worn out from running. We all make it over this hurdle with ease. This symbolizes those obstacles in life that we struggle to get over, but we always manage to do so. You can look at that hurdle in two ways: "I can't make it over, I'm too tired" or "I am one more hurdle closer to finishing this race". This is an example of taking a negative situation and seeing something positive in it.

The next part of the race is every hurdle between the first and last one. These hurdles get tougher and tougher and you may feel as though you can't go on. This happens in life a lot too. There may be a situation that arises that you feel as though you can't make it and all you can think about is giving up. You may fall over that "hurdle" or struggle getting over it, but somehow you find it in yourself to jump over it and move on with the race.

Next, is that last 100m of the race. You feel as though you just want to say, 'No I can't do this'. Again, you must find it in yourself that you can do it, and you must finish the race stronger than when you had started it.

Now lastly, is the last hurdle. This hurdle is the toughest out of all 8 of them. In life we find ourselves falling and falling, and maybe getting too lost in our problems that we feel like we have been through enough and there's no hope. That last hurdle symbolizes these situations. It's one step close to the end of that race.

Once you finish, you look back on it and you realize that you made it not by leaping, but step by step. "Yard by yard, life is very hard. But inch by inch, life can be a cinch".

All it takes is one step at a time, one hurdle at a time.

Copyright © 2002 Christine Moran
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