Written by Samuel Hunter, 2024
Samuel is Running for Dreams’ newest Ambassador, and is running the Louisiana Marathon in January 2025 to raise money for the cause. He took a trip this past summer and we asked him beforehand to write about his experience. This is his story.
Let me begin by saying that I do not intend to change the world with this story, at the very least I hope to spark in you, the reader, the curiosity to finish it. Yet I do hope that by finishing this story you can walk away with an infinitely small stirring in your chest, though I would hardly call it a rise to action. I think it is best to say that I offer some tiny yet significant inspiration for tomorrow; young or old, man or woman, winner or loser, whoever you are. I invite you to listen to my story: my summer of 2024.
I had just finished my last exam in my freshman year of college. I’ll be quick and to the point, my college career thus far had challenged me in ways I could never expect: failures, heartbreaks, new perspectives, incredible highs, incredible lows, and academic pain pretty much sums it all up. That is all I wish to say about that. I walked away from it with the understanding that the only constant in life is change, and at nineteen years old I realized this was only the beginning. I do not mean to sound so daunting, the truth is I left campus knowing that my life is in my own hands, and for the first time I felt terrified and exhilarated of my own future. But to start my summer, I went back to the places I knew and was comfortable with, to give me some respite from feeling so out of place: back into the city I call home, New Orleans. Locals like to say New Orleans is a “small big city.” Because of Mardi Gras, Jazz fest, the French Quarter, seafood restaurants, small businesses, school rivalries, and loving people, New Orleans citizens seem to bond in an indescribable way. What else can I say, you just have to be there to understand. I fit into a small group that makes a choice to wake up before dawn to meet out on the lakefront to run six, eight, even fifteen miles to begin their day. I am a purebred New Orleans runner, and I love to be one.
In years past, my high school cross country coach would take the team on a two week training excursion in Flagstaff, Arizona. I started going on these trips as a sophomore, and traveled with the team until the summer after my senior year. I’d say these trips make up a majority of the reason I fell in love with running. Just being surrounded by a group of people who are all equally bought-in to the same goal makes you intensely ambitious. But it helped that these people were some of my closest friends. As a sophomore on that trip, my coach made a speech about how you will never regret working hard, and to this day I hang on to that philosophy.
Going to Flagstaff every summer made me realize what could be possible not only with running, but with travel. I started to have ideas of spending the summer out West: camping alongside rivers, running in the mornings, fishing in alpine lakes, and so on. So as soon as my freshman year of college started, I pitched a plan to a close friend, who was a former teammate, to make a two week road trip out West to the beautiful state of Colorado. He was immediately in, and the gears started turning. We started saving up as much cash as we could to fund our journey. I won’t bore you with the details of preparation, but it unfortunately turned out that my friend, Hudson, was only available for one week of travel. So we planned to enjoy a week traveling together, then I would drop him off at Denver’s airport to fly home. Following that, I would continue solo for one more week.
The whole experience was truly incredible. We camped alongside rivers, ran in the morning, fished in alpine lakes, hiked up mountain peaks, built fires, and watched the stars. The solo part gave me time to reflect and taught me how small I truly am. Even the driving was memorable. I could write an entire book on those two weeks I spent out West, and someday maybe I will. But today, I just want to give you my input on how running has made a profound impact on my life.
During the road trip I ran almost everyday, only taking off the first few days considering we had to drive so much to get out to Colorado. Maybe it was the constant driving, the altitude, or the late nights spent by the fire, but every run for the entire two weeks felt bad. Some were worse than others, but I never had a “good run”. I’m an experienced runner who was in good shape going into this trip, but things happen, and that is what running has taught me more than anything else. You are going to have bad days, weeks, months, maybe even years. But looking back, I can’t help but see that every moment of the day I was happy. Throughout the trip, there was setback after setback, but I kept looking forward to waking up and finishing the brutal run I knew I was going to have. You can call it persistence or a positive attitude, but I simply call it running. Progress just isn’t linear, and deep down that’s a fact all runners know. Running has taught me so much about life than anything else I have ever gone through. Bad days are inevitable, you are going to have them. But life isn’t about the bad days or the good ones, it’s about the choices you make to fight against the world seeming to pull you down. C.S. Lewis sums it up better than I can by saying, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Whether you are religious or not, he speaks a harsh truth: suffering is the only way any man or woman can feel complete in life. Personally, I am inspired by this. Because of running, I’m prepared to tackle every day with my all, and fall asleep knowing I earn the steps I take toward a better tomorrow. My question to you is, are you prepared to do the same?
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