Date: June 11th
Neighborhood: Porter Ranch
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Weather: Cloudy, breezy, overall perfect June gloom weather
Distance: 2.2 miles
This is my third time hiking at Porter Ranch Trails (Limekiln Canyon trails). I was craving to go outside because it’s been a while since I’ve done any hiking. Yes, there was the biking around Portland, but that was on vacation.
I kept putting off hiking because I was so busy at work. I didn’t hike for most of May when I really needed to hike the most.
I also carried this thought over to June that I shouldn’t go hiking until I finished my grad school application. I shouldn’t punish myself for doing that. Why put aside the things that makes me feel good and find meaningful?
In other news, I finished my Statement of Purpose. It was a 300-400 word essay and I started a few weeks back with my outline of all the things I wanted to share with Admissions. Yesterday on Sunday morning, I dedicated my entire morning (and skipped my 10 AM barre class for a later time) to work on my Statement of Purpose. This took me about 3 hours that morning to complete. It’s a 300-400 word essay — that’s about a page and a half with Times New Roman, sized 12 pt font, double spaced. In general, it doesn’t take me this long to write at this length. I spent a good part of that time making sure my essay was concise but still tell a compelling story. I read it out loud several times over. Continued to cut out words until I was below 400 words, then I read it again, and repeat.
I finally turned it my Statement of Purpose that morning. I feel relieved, but tired. I felt I was dragging myself to my errands, to go to barre class. I told myself after barre class, I’ll go home and work on my CV for grad school next. When I got home, I changed my mind and told my husband “let’s go for a walk around the park” and I chose Porter Ranch Trails. It’s close by, but yet once you’re in the canyon, the suburbs and strip malls seem to disappear.
Instead of locking myself up at home to finish my grad school application, I said “let’s go outside.” I did not punish myself for this either. Being outside was much needed — I needed to be out of the house, my husband and dogs needed to be out of the house, we needed to appreciate the perfect, cool weather, and reward ourselves for spending the most of our Saturday afternoon demolishing our backyard (more on that later).
After the hike, we went for ice cream, went home, cooked dinner, and watched TV. Before bed time, I got around to updating my CV. I didn’t finish it yet, but it’s in progress.
See, the world does not end because you decided to take a break. You need a break because your body and mind tells you to. In the end, you’ll get back to whatever you needed to do. For me, I felt this 2-hour break gave me new lenses with my CV. Instead of just adding my latest job title and awards to my CV, I decided I will change the entire layout — I’ve had this same CV layout for years. Again, I gained a fresh pair of lenses.
Eat, Play, Live 
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