Juneathon Day 23: She's Back!

Waking up this morning, I knew. Before I even looked, I knew. Things felt different this morning. Even so, I still lifted my pillow a little tentatively to look beneath; my stomach  fluttering with butterflies as I braced myself for disappointment…

But there she was! I needn't have worried; She had returned to me. Optimistimaggie was back!

Optimistimaggie was under my pillow all along!

Clasping her tightly to me, I bounced out of bed and began preparing myself for the long day ahead. Unlike yesterday, with Optimistimaggie back on my shoulder, I was positively looking forward to it, and so, as I brushed my hair and applied my make-up, we chatted happily together; so much so Pessimistimaggie couldn’t get a word in edgeways – which is probably a good job, or we never would have had the opportunity to conjure our clever plan:

‘The problem is Optimistimaggie that Pessimistimaggie really doesn’t like exercise and she always talks me out of it when you’re not around. I’m not blaming you, but I really wish there was at least some chance I could fit exercise into my day today; but I’ve Parents’ Evening tonight, so I can’t even go to running club.’ Dejectedly, I looked away from her positive, smiling face, catching a wry smirk plastered across Pessimistimaggie’s as I did so.

‘Well, why not just work it into part of your day?’ Suggested Optimistimaggie, ‘There’s no reason why you can’t run to and from work, for example.

‘You’ll get too sweaty’ chipped in Pessimistimaggie.

Unfortunately she was right.

‘Okay, well what about riding your bike to work?’ returned Optimistimaggie.

‘It’ll take too long to set it up, you should have got it out the cupboard last night if you wanted to do that.’ Retorted Pessimistimaggie.

Once again, she was right.

‘Okay.’ Began Optimistimaggie, refusing to give up, ‘Why don’t you just walk to work then? You’ve plenty of time, it’s only 6.30am, you’ll easily be there in 45 minutes!’

‘ummmm, well, yeah… I guess…’

‘No, you can’t. It won’t work it…’ began Pessimistimaggie.

‘Yes! That’s a great idea.’ I interrupted, refusing to allow Pessimisitimaggie to have her way again.

So, today, I walked to work.

And what a lovely walk it was. I can understand why people like to get out and exercise in the morning, there's something about walking alone and just letting the world fade into the background for a while. Unlike driving a car, it didn't feel like a commute and before I knew it I had arrived at school feeling completely refreshed and ready for the day.

In fact, the positive feelings I gained from my walk to work stayed with me all day... whilst I wrote reports, whilst I waited for year 9 to 'settle', whilst I wrote more reports, whilst I 'dealt' with year 8... right up to the 40th, and final, parent interview of the night. At which point, I pulled on my running gear and jogged the 3 miles back home again. Perfect.

Activity: walk to work; run home again.

Distance: 6 miles total

Time: 1.10 mins

Feeling: Positive!

 "I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you - we are in charge of our Attitudes." - Charles Swindoll