College Essay # 186

186. Jogging has become extremely popular. Explain why you jog or why you don't.

The wind blowing in your hair and on your face, the beautiful hills all around you, and the slight drizzle during inter house cross-country reminds me more and more of why I don't jog. Interhouse cross-country comes once a year, but it is one event I dread the most. Even after cross-country is over for the year, I dread the upcoming one. 

While standing on the starting line I look past the crowd to see the path that awaits me, and I just feel stuck. Mr. Mark bangs the two clappers together, and I can feel my heart starting to race before I even start running. I run; run past the crowd, past the teachers sitting and gleefully watching the students work their asses off running cross-country while they sit and eat wai-wai, and run past the gates of Rokeby. By then all I want to do is stop and walk the whole way. But my friends are determined for me to not come last, even if I don't care. So we jog the whole way till we start seeing people. We jog, and jog, and jog, and jog like there's no tomorrow. That journey seems never ending. 

I get to the finish line and everyone is cheering for everyone else. Even though I haven't come first and I didn't come last, I feel I have achieved nothing. In a place where we're meant to be running, we jog. I know I would have walked if it weren't for my friends, but jogging. There's nothing great about it. The rain, the wind in your face; the only thing is does is makes you feel cold. The scenery around you isn't even seen because you're concentrating on keeping your feet moving, you're concentrating on not getting cramps.

Jogging has been an extremely popular sport for people who don't want to put in the extra effort to run. I think running gives you the same feeling that jogging does. Isn't it the whole concept of wind blowing in your hair and you feeling good about it? I don't understand why people jog and I never will.