PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

-       He is a lawyer, a father, a son, a golfer and triathlete. My father’s Ironman medals have become a symbol of him. They are placed in the center of our living ROOM in a special base he selected so everyone can see them as they enter our house. The medals he has earned come from different places; they have different background, different shapes and different stories of pride, effort, sacrifice, and over all success.  Everyday he wakes up at 5 am to train; he swims, runs, does extremely long rides in his bike. He has fallen down, cried, spent hours without sleep, lost weight, gained weight, traveled and competed for every single one of his medals. Knowing that only a few people have the same collection of medals he has makes him proud and pushes him to get more. He knows that he will never end up in first place but it is not about the place he ends up in, it is about the journey, the people, the family support, the cheers, the location, the team, the life style, the pride and the stories that he gets in the end. The medals are just the physical representation of the months of training for the competition. Although for many people this journey represents a total of 140.6 miles, divided in: 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles riding his bike and 26.2 miles running, for him it is a culmination of all his work throughout the months in one medal. For 14 hours he will be giving every single breath, gram of effort in his body and thought to achieve his goal. He has changed teams, coaches, bikes, uniforms, diets, tennis shoes but he’s stayed with the same mission of traveling around the world competing in as many places as he can and keep on getting life experiences. If his determination has showed me something is that if you want something and its important to you, you will sacrifice things to get that symbol of success that comes from reaching your goal; it might be a medal, a grade or a job. I know that is why the medals will continue to be shown with pride in my house, for symbolizing the effort and the struggle to get to your goal. In some years he will continue to tell the stories to anyone willing to listen and to anyone who appreciates what they symbolize.