-How is anticipation like a gunshot?

When I was in middle school I was a runner, track and field was the best time of the year. The sky was almost always blue and the temperature was just starting to get warm again. There was a sense of good things to come once I was assigned to my team level. Having done next to nothing the whole winter my body was anticipating all the adrenaline rushes that come with competitive running. The best part of the whole thing was having a good gunshot to start the race off right. Getting into my lane, doing some final stretches, sizing up my opposition, closing my eyes and visualizing the track; there was so much building up to one final moment. Kneeling down to the starting line of my lane, I felt every tendon in my heart bumping sweet blood throughout my body; I took in the smell of the rubber track and the sweat of the event. Then there was the realization of what was about to happen; all that mattered in the next sixty seconds was that I was ahead of my fellow runners, this is also when the anticipation sets in. All at once everything moved in slow motion, all I could hear was my by breathe and it seemed like even the air itself was pushing against me. Where is the gun shot? I want to start this just so I can end this.

Cole was a good friend of mine, for a few months during high school we were inseparable. Then our lives lead us into different directions; I went on to college and he was left where he was. The contradiction in all this is that he was far smarter then me in every way possible. I once tried explaining a math problem to him, thinking he was misunderstanding it, it turns out I was doing it wrong and he showed me the proper way. One would think that we would get a better grade on the upcoming test; wrong, he failed while I scored an eighty nine. He never anticipated doing well in math or school in general for that matter. He had a very real, but overly pessimistic view on the world. He could have been top of the class had he only wanted it, had he anticipated doing well in school, had he tried to run the race. He chose to not run the race at all as opposed to anticipating the gunshot.

Missy is a new friend of mine, who has the survival work ethic; if she is not working she will not survive. Always doing something, always entering new things, there is bound to be let downs; there is bound to be anticipation that leaves you open and exposed. Yet she has the most positive attitude I have seen in a long time. She envisions what she wants while in the process of waiting for it. She is so healthy that she does not skip a beat when there is a let down, when anticipation leaves her stranded at the starting line. She chooses to run each time; she has no problem racing against anticipation.

Back to the starting line; waiting for the gunshot. If I wait too long and build it up too much my muscles will get strained and then I will get tired out before the finish line. If I do not race at all then there is no way to have my expectations defeated, no way for anticipation to crush me. I could focus on the finish line, see it in my head, and realize that this is not the last race. This is the race for today, the race for right now; there will be more races. We will always be running, but we have to react to the gunshot in the right way. How will you react next time?
Bang.