I feel like I have written on a topic similar to this many times, but it just seems to keep coming up which means it’s not getting old and I should continue to write about it. Everything you do has an effect on the people around you. For every action you take there are unintended consequences on your world and these consequences can be good or bad.
Last week in the gym after I finished one of my many workouts, someone came up to me and asked what I was training for. I had never spoken to him before and had only seen him a few times in the gym. He said he noticed me biking and running often and was curious why I was putting in all this effort. We chatted for a few minutes about my training and he told me about how much he enjoys road cycling back home. I didn’t want to talk too long because I was on the edge of super nasty and sweating and didn’t want to gross him out. However we chatted some and shared a few training thoughts and were on our way. My intention that day in going to the gym was to get my workout in, but unintentionally I met someone new and shared some training advice!
Two of my co-workers, Sarah and Yam, encountered an unintended consequence a few days ago. They went to the dining facility for lunch. When they left they took milks with them to store in our office refrigerator for future use. Now the coolers in the dining facility are clearly marked stating each diner is only allowed to take two drinks with them when they leave. After lunch they were on a post meal walk when by surprise the IMPs (International Military Police), pulled them over on their walk. They were asked to show their milks. After a quick count of milks vs. personnel the IMPs discovered they had five milks and there were only two of them. They were one milk over their quota. They were sternly reminded of the rule. We take our milk very seriously here, make sure you are not caught carrying one too many or you will be pulled over by the police in a very threatening John Deere Gator.
When I first got here, the military has a tradition of doing something called hails and farewells. What we do here is each week on Thursday evenings we introduce any new people who came over the last week and say good bye to anyone who will be leaving over the next week. For my hail they mentioned I would be training for an Ironman while I’m here. After the hail, a British Marine Sean Brady (that is not a typo), came up to me and started talking training. He’s done one Ironman before. Our conversations started with biking and he introduced me to Trainer Road, the app I now use for all my bike training. I am very thankful he introduced me to Trainer Road. It has given me a structured program to improve me biking, a great unintended consequence. After a few weeks of chatting, he decided he was going to train for an Ironman as well. For him an unintended consequence of our meeting was motivating him to do his second Ironman. He is racing in July in Britain.
Now that he is training for an Ironman he needs to swim to coincide with his biking and running. Since my arrival I’ve been going over to the U.S. Embassy to take advantage of their pool. Only U.S. citizens are allowed over to the U.S. Embassy, so starting back in November Sean and I started swimming together on Tuesdays and Thursdays over the lunch hour. He pushed me to swim faster and what I’m? saying is actually trying to swim. Prior to that I was just getting in the pool and putting in meters. I didn’t actually try to swim well with any kind of speed, my unintended consequence of our swims together. This last Thursday was our last swim together. I leave, God willing, on Sunday to start traveling home (there is no quick way in and out of Afghanistan), and when I come back he will be back in Britain with his family.
About once a month at church I do one of the readings. There is a very kind older U.S. civilian here who coordinates who will do the readings. Last week he asked me to read and in the email asking me to read he mentioned that last time I read my reading I inspired another girl to volunteer to read. Never when I said yes to read did I think that just standing up there and reading would give someone else the courage to do the same. I was just reading with no other motives and unintentionally motivated someone else.
On Friday, February 2nd the base hosted a 5k called the Frozen 5k (I italicize 5k because as usual the course was short). So there was actually a race, not just a Darchelle made up fun run. I still dressed up and wore green snowflake leggings with a pajama top I already had featuring a snowman! The combination was perfect for a Frozen 5k. The crazy fast lady from the U.S. Embassy didn’t come over and run so I took first place for females. I won a pedicure and full body massage, so certainly worth a run. After the run I changed and did my last long bike ride before my vacation. On vacation I will certainly still workout, but nowhere near as much!
Bottom line this week is I want to encourage all of you to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to be you. You are unintentionally influencing those around just by being the awesome you that you are. You are making a difference in other people’s lives and leaving them with unintentional consequences. Just make an effort that you are leaving them with positive consequences!
Darchelle's Vacation with Uncle Sam 