25 Laps for 25 Years - Birthday Track Attack

For my birthday on Thanksgiving day, I got to do my favorite activity: run with my dearest friends. I set out to run 25 by 400M on the track and invited everyone to come out and join. Faith was brave enough to do the whole workout with me and when Jenn jumped in, she said: 'why don't you tell us a little story for every age'. I really liked this idea, so I thought, why not write it down and share it with you. Here we go:

At age 1, I don't remember much. Maybe I was crawling around. At age 2, I was crying and eating, probably. At age 3, I believe I started talking. At age 4, my brother was born, I became the big sister. At age 5, I started elementary school and because of that, I stayed the youngest in every grade. At age 6, my favorite teacher was Mrs. Fischer, ah I loved her so much!! I would always draw a lot of fish for her birthday. At age 7, we moved neighborhoods in our town Speyer. At age 8, I had a tough time in school. My grades dropped from A’s to D’s. At age 9, I visited Vietnam with my family the first time and met my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

At age 10, I was told by my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Sassenhof that I shouldn't attend the middle school which would lead to a high school degree. I spoke up and asked my parents to let me continue school. At age 11, I started middle school and found my love for the languages. English was my favorite, right after French. At age 12, all my teachers recommended me to switch to a better school, but since I made all these new friends, I sticked to them and stayed. At age 13, my dad opened up a restaurant. Not only was I still a student, but I would work there for the following two years. At age 14, I had a big party and started hiding things from my parents. I also started drinking and smoking. At age 15, I had my first boyfriend—hi Moritz! At age 16, I lost virginity. This was a fun lap to run! At age 17, my first relationship ended. Pretty long relationship.

At age 18, I graduated from high school (yes! I made it!) and moved to New Jersey for a gap year and became an Au-pair in a Jewish family. I didn't know what to study, so going abroad just made the most sense to me at the time. At age 19, I was a visiting student at a Women's college, I really enjoyed journalism and wrote for the student newspaper. I also started running and stopped partying since I was underage in the U.S. At age 20, I moved back to Germany and started my media and science degree in university. At age 21, I lived and worked in Berlin while being a full time student. At age 22, I was 1 out of 3 people from my university who had the chance to go to NYC for a study abroad semester. I took the adventure and combined it with a trip to Canada. At 23, I just had met Jeggi and was introduced to Blackrosesnyc. A new (running) era and a new life in New York began. At age 24, this previous year, I had run the New York City marathon in 2016 and the Berlin Marathon only in September.

On Thursday, I turned 25 and I am ready for the new year ahead.

It's Sunday now, as I am jotting these thoughts from this past weekend down and my heart is so full of love and joy. I think this was one of my favorite birthdays. The fact that we all came together on this cold morning to run side by side was so powerful, it opened up my heart a little bit more, I am filled with gratitude. I really love what 'movement' and 'moving together' does to us. It gives us a sense of belonging and community. Thank you to family and friends from near and far, you are the reason for who I am and why I keep on loving.

Thankful for every minute of this life, hope you had a great one with dear ones as well! xx