The Old Lady in her cute Pink Shirt and black fanny pack attached to her hip, acted like it was a breeze to walk up that entire hill.
But guess what, your girl joined her.
So, one day I was eating a bunch of 垃圾 (trashy) foods and was tired of my constant lack of energy, the stagnant weight gain of coming home from college, and just myself. I was tired of myself and my choices. I always praise myself for being very confident, sure of myself (most of the time), and a bad gyal. However, bad gyals have their self-control in check and can endure life-changing moments to grow. Therefore, I decided to embark on this journey that I'm currently on now: being conscious of what I want to eat, aim towards consuming healthier foods, and utilizing this time of social-distancing to workout everyday (and do my 5 miles for 30 day challenge! Feel free to join).
Thus, my story I'm about to tell. So, yesterday I was in a pretty not-okay mood just because of my fierce wanting-to-be-everywhere-but-home vibe that's embedded in my personality. I always believe to travel as far away from home as possible when you're young and have the opportunity before actual adulting hits is the best way to widen your perspective 🙃. Today, however, I was in a better mood and I really can't tell you what motivated me to jog everywhere in my neighborhood, half my hill, and walk the remaining of it to the top.
Well, this is where the Old Lady in the Pink Shirt comes in.
Let me tell you, I've never wanted to thank a stranger so much. From the bottom of the hill, I've seen her walking on the opposite sidewalk of me. And boy, was she going man. I was panting and even got upset at myself for panting because she looked so graceful casually walking up an entire mountain 🤗. I'm also a bit competitive (that's just in my nature do not @ me) and saw two women walking up the hill behind me as well. My competitive nature helped me set the pace for myself to not slack off and stay in between the two ladies behind me and the old lady in front of me. The entire time.
Now, I'm a firm believer in mental strength > physical strength (thank you Punahou Wrestling). So, I was motivating myself to keep going, listening to my Afrobeats which usually puts me in an upbeat mood, and thought of everything except walking at an almost entirely vertical incline. I kept checking to see how my pace was by looking over my shoulder and ahead of me to see where everyone was at relative to me. The two ladies behind me kept taking breaks (which I was trying to avoid) so then my attention just focused on the Old Lady in the Pink Shirt. Now, don't get me wrong I wasn't trying to out-walk an elderly woman, she was just so awesome, not stopping--which was my goal--and stayed constant at her own pace. She motivated me to keep going. I would occasionally check my phone to change the music, look at the beautiful views, but I kept telling myself not to stop.
Having her in front of me was so inspiring and motivating! This comes to show that you never know how much of an impact your presence and actions can have on others ✨. She was literally chillin, doing her thing, and here I was huffing-and-puffing like the Big Bad Wolf using up all this air. I stayed focused the whole time though, and it felt good to keep pushing myself to keep going. It was a mental strengthening game for me. I love challenges.
The entire time the Old Lady in the Pink Shirt did not stop, and she looked SO graceful and literally made me think like oh wow ya this isn't bad at all a walk in the park. I also kept reminding myself that she's an elderly woman and did not stop the entire time we both started walking up the hill. So, um hello Tenielle of course your 19-year old self can do it stop complaining. It was good to have these thoughts running through my head, because again anything else then thinking about the increasingly vertical incline am I right? She literally did not stop at all, and thank god I was blasting WizKid and Davido in my ears or else I would've been annoyed at my own breathing lmao.
Okay, anyways I'm still continuing to walk up the hill and of course she's having no problem, but then I come to a flat part of the walk and was so tempted to stop and trick myself into thinking like no, Tenielle you're not taking a break because you're tired, you're just enjoying the view and taking your 100th picture of the same view you take a picture of every time you walk up this hill! No worries. Then, I look over and she's literally still walking. Let me tell you I've never been so passively indirectly upset but appreciative of a stranger all at once. So, my a$% kept walking, us two bad gyals.
The inclines are weird like sometimes it gets so vertical you feel like you're going to fall off the mountain seriously, then it turns totally flat, circling into another round of vertical inclines.
BUT WE DID IT. I literally was thinking of what to say to her when we both reached the top of the hill, and at that moment I literally said "The Old Lady in the Pink Shirt" that's my next blog post. I even had it written down on my to-do list but had no idea (other than my in-the-works Global Initiative project I'm currently working on!) what to write about.
I took my AirPods out and literally thanked her so much she probably thought I was mad. I genuinely didn't care what she thought, I just wanted to show my appreciation and I just told her "You are so awesome for walking up this entire hill, you also literally don't know how much you helped me drag myself up here" and she just laughed and stood there at the top of the hill, like the bad gyal she is, and stopped to admire the beautiful colors of the sunset.
I just wanted to share this experience with you all that even in this daring time of social-distancing, we can all utilize our time to positively work on and challenges parts of ourselves. There's always room for improvement! The ladder to success is never-ending, baby. Keep climbing!😉💪🏼