Week Seven: Overcoming Sickness

I got to the airport with a ticket heading back to New York, via Chicago, but the whole time I was thinking that I had been in Texas, so close to home, yet unable to visit. Well sometimes when you wish for something hard enough, it happens. All flights to and out of Chicago were cancelled. The cause: a snow storm. Any other flights going directly to New York had left for the evening. There was no way I was getting to New York that night. The next flight out of Houston left the following day, meaning I would have to spend another night there. Or, I could take a flight out the next morning from Dallas! Guess what I decided? Yup. Took the next flight to Dallas and showed up at the doorstep of my house. :) Parents were ecstatic. I got to spend a day in my room. Sleep in my bed. Had mom's home cooked food with the family. It was just what I needed at the end of a chaotic week.

I came back the next day and went straight to work. As I walked in, a few bookers and writers gave me tasks to do. It was exciting to know that I had made a place for myself here. People knew who I was and trusted my work. It was nice to be back in the familiar and exciting world of news media. However, sooner than I thought, the chaos of the previous week caught up to me. Before I knew it sickness took over and I had to spend the rest of time focused on myself and resting. Sometimes when you are in a place like New York, always on the go, you forget about the very real, physical limitations that is the human condition. Sleep, rest, and time for self are not options. But, when you're excited about your environment and want to take the most advantage of where you are, you tend to place those things on the back-burner. Until they catch up to you.

This week was about making myself stronger. It was all about making sure that I was able, capable, and strong enough to take on the world around me. And it was about overcoming sickness, both outward and internal. It is around this time, every year, that students start getting sick. Whether we are in New York or back on campus. I think its because we take on so much, battle our inner selves and try to come out conquering everything. But in order to go beyond the teeming normalcy and take on the world, we have to find an inner strength that can fuse with the weaknesses of our bodies. This allows us to regain strength and find an inner certainty. This certainty goes beyond confidence, because it comes from beyond ourselves.

One of my best friend's came to visit this week. It helped me to talk through the mental and physical exhaustion as we traversed the streets of New York and focused on the spiritual reality of life. Amongst the bright lights and materialism of Times Square and in the urban, natural moments of Central Park, we found an answer to life's weakness. Life doesn't make sense as we live it, but I think looking back, everything brings you the very moment you're in. It's like the past refocuses you, bringing you the present. This awareness brought an end to my physical sickness and I took on the next week, ready for new responsibilities at work.