It was a bitter cold morning. I walked what felt like a mile to the starting line. I was the first from the group to get there, and I took in the spectacle that Long Beach Turkey Trot. A food bank van collected cans and other non-perishables. I was a bit cranky at the lack of sleep and wondered yet again what the hell I was doing at 730am on Thanksgiving running a 10K. Well, more like jogging at 1 hour 15 minutes, but whose counting? Yet I met my group of 20 with my ex-personal trainer who got me to do this run every day (5 years now).
Upon finishing, I rushed out to another place three miles away. A church where for the first ten minutes, I was overwhelmed at the amount of people who had show to volunteer to serve the less fortunate, and stood around unsure what to do. Then I went to the back, and saw my old job waiting for me, washing pots and pans. I did that for a year at UCLA and immediately dove in. I said hi to my family members (over 10 of them showed to help). It was an amazing feeling to see so much of my family show due to a simple text by me asking for support. We worked till 3pm, and then we headed home.
We got to getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was during that time that I realized we had just created a new tradition as many of my loved ones said they would love to the Turkey Trot then go serve. It wa a full Thanksgiving, but you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sanjay Sabarwal's Blog 