Reality Check

I've been back for a little over a week and it feels like an eternity. I think this past week went as slow as my first week of law school. It was painfully long.

The other day I took a longer route to walk to the train station so that I could enjoy the day and the beautiful weather we are having. As usual I passed a number of homeless people on the streets and I was reminded of how lucky I am to have a home, food, and a family that loves me. Right before I entered the station I saw an older Asian woman sitting on the ground, apart from the crowd. Her face was painted with strange face paint and she looked so forlorn and sad. She was just sitting there and people were passing her as if this was normal -even I did it. None of us stopped to see if she needed help or comfort. I haven't been able to get her off my mind and I wonder what her story was -why was she so sad, why was her face painted, why was she alone.

I started thinking, what if I were the one sitting on the ground, waiting for someone to notice me. What if nobody did. What a sad thought. My reality check came that I am so caught up in my own life so much of the time and not caught up in the lives of those around me. This isn't to say that I should stop and talk to everyone who looks a bit blue; if I did that I wouldn't stop talking to people. But I should be more aware of people around me and try to reach out more to them.

The countdown to my end in San Francisco has begun and sadly it will come much sooner than I anticipated. I'm not ready to leave.

My other reality check came when I realized that my pedometer was crediting me with an extra mile or so of running each time I ran. All along I've thought I was running just under 3 miles when low and behold I was running just under 1.5 miles. Crazy. So today I used a mapping tool and ran 3.3 miles (okay so I walked about 4 blocks worth of those three miles, but I felt pretty good that I actually did it. My goal is to run 3 miles, 3 times per week. (I'm just trying to keep up with the other Kera in the family.)

I love you all!

Lots of love,
Kara