December 2018: My why
So many people ask me what my "why" is for running across Australia. I have a love-hate relationship with this question. For one, why do you need a why for every single thing in life...damn it?! I get it - a why is a guiding light, a deep motivator, a north star. On the other side of things, what if you wanted to try something simply because you wonder if you can? Because you..."want to." You want to feel. You want to feel what not knowing is like. You want to just go and become. Can this why be...enough?
All that said, I have a why. It's a why that has roots in all of the sentiments above. When I begin my run across Australia, it will be ten years after I completed my run across America. Through pushing towards and through Australia, I want to reignite that 23 year-old Katie - driven, determined, strong, fully and deeply alive following her passions. I want to lead with courage and curiosity rather than let fear and the “what ifs” step in. There are many ways I can grow into that Katie again, and once again cultivate a stronger sense of my authentic self, but I keep coming back to one particular way, a goal I’ve had since even before I ran across the USA. “One day,” I’ve said, “I will run across Australia, through her deserts, into her complex and elegant desolation.” This is my pilgrimage, to confront all parts of myself in one of the most raw and barren places on earth, to find my Katie again, to reclaim all of my fire, to accept my vulnerability and let it all go at the same time. I want to go to the outside edge again, and love it.
Do you have a why? What is it? Why is it? Write it down. Speak it. Believe it. Be it.
All that said, I have a why. It's a why that has roots in all of the sentiments above. When I begin my run across Australia, it will be ten years after I completed my run across America. Through pushing towards and through Australia, I want to reignite that 23 year-old Katie - driven, determined, strong, fully and deeply alive following her passions. I want to lead with courage and curiosity rather than let fear and the “what ifs” step in. There are many ways I can grow into that Katie again, and once again cultivate a stronger sense of my authentic self, but I keep coming back to one particular way, a goal I’ve had since even before I ran across the USA. “One day,” I’ve said, “I will run across Australia, through her deserts, into her complex and elegant desolation.” This is my pilgrimage, to confront all parts of myself in one of the most raw and barren places on earth, to find my Katie again, to reclaim all of my fire, to accept my vulnerability and let it all go at the same time. I want to go to the outside edge again, and love it.
Do you have a why? What is it? Why is it? Write it down. Speak it. Believe it. Be it.
