<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Jake Group 250(1).jpg" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; width: 250px; height: 179px; float: right;" />This year celebrates the twelfth year anniversary since I started running. I started with running cross country in sixth grade, and I was terrible. But it got better, and it&#39;s now grown into something I love. It has taught me dedication and determination, and also gives me extended times of silence for prayer.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Running takes time. I have spent countless hours on country roads, alone, practicing. Left, Right, Repeat. One thing that I have learned from my decade of running is that running can be a metaphor to so many things in life. In high school, I read a quote on the back of a person&rsquo;s shirt that said, &ldquo;Running is a lot like life, you get out of it, what you put into it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Environmental Education is the same way. Just like running, environmental education takes preparation. Paul got us prepared for teaching kids with a week&rsquo;s worth of training, but one can only read and be taught so much beforehand. The best way to get better, at environmental education or running, is to go out and do it.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Everyone whom has tried to just start running knows that the first time you go running is hard. Lactic acid is building up in your legs and your lungs burn. But, after you stay true to your running and just get out and try each day, it gets easier and more and more fun. I can say the same fro teaching.&nbsp;On the Monday morning before our first group of kids (the calm before the storm if you will), I was apprehensive to say the least and it did not matter how many times I read over my information, it did not make me feel any better. Eventually, the kids arrived and I was thrown into teaching nine little first graders about what makes a mammal a mammal, among other things. I ended up being fine, but my first day of teaching was most definitely the worst. After three weeks of teaching kiddos, it became much easier and rather than feeling apprehensive, I was excited for each day. I just had to get out there and do it.</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}YESSSSSS!.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 167px; float: left; " />After I finish a long hard run I always get this one feeling. It is kind of hard to explain but, it&rsquo;s something like I know that I did something worthwhile. Ronald Rook once said,&ldquo;I don&#39;t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days.&rdquo; Teaching gave me a similar feeling. After cleaning up the dining room (first&nbsp;graders are really messy eaters) and putting away snow shoes (they also do not put away their toys), I could sit down and say to myself, &ldquo;I made a difference today. I shared something I love with those kids.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	There were some days, even if my kids wore me out, that I would sit down and not help but smile. Who knows? Maybe someday one of those kids will be in my shoes, teaching about something they love, just because of a fieldtrip they took in elementary school.</p>
