beginnings

it's january 27th. i signed up to walk in the seattle breast cancer 3-day walk late last night. i'd been talking about it with my mom for a few weeks, and had mentally started a list of things i could do to raise the $2300 required to participate.

almost immediately after signing up, i upped my goal to $2500. and proceeded to solicit 180 of my facebook friends for donations. i sent out emails to others. i'm prepping letters to send to still more.

and then i waited. my mind tossed around ideas. "boob tshirts? good? bad? tasteful?" "felt boob pins? good? bad? tasteful?" "is it wrong that i just want to make crafts involving breasts? they're just so easy to cut out and draw!" "is 'boob crafting' its own genre?" i'm certain there were more. i'm certain they involved breasts. and then i went to bed.

when i woke up, there was an email. "a donation was made on your behalf." for $50. i'd only been asking for $20. lots of smaller donations from lots more people. you know, obama style. it worked for him, and then some.

i rubbed my eyes. i processed what "a donation was made on your behalf" REALLY meant. it meant that this was really happening. that this is really happening, and it is happening right now.

after that initial donation came another. and another. and throughout the day, my phone would "ping" and there in my email account: "a donation was made on your behalf."

and here it it, not even 9 pm on january 27th. not even a full day has passed, and i have already received 6 donations, totalling $230.

when i started to read about this event, one comment that stood out to me was "you'll be surprised by who donates... and by who doesn't. and you'll be surprised by who donates what." but i'm surprised by something else.

for as much as people lambaste facebook for being a cesspool of meaningless "friends", it's not true. or at least, not entirely. facebook let me reconnect with people i knew years ago, had a class with, or hadn't spoken to in awhile. it let me say "hey, i know i haven't spoken to you in ages, but i'm doing this really important event, and i need help. can you help me?" and it let them say "yes". and it will let me ask others again, further down the line.

still, midway through the day today, i did panic. i did think "what did i get myself into? $2300?? $2500?? can i DO that?" and i came home, and i asked adam, and he said, "yes, yes you can. it's day one. you're almost 10% there."

it took awhile to convince myself that this was true, to get that silly, worried pit out of my stomach. to remember how excited i was when i was first brainstorming, to remember how excited i was at that first "ping".

so we'll see. one day at a time, right?

i have until september 11. and between now and then, i'm going to raise $2500. i'm going to train myself to walk 60 miles. i'm going to reflect on what this walk means to me. i'm going to try and do it seriously. and i'm going to try and do it with a sense of humor. and i'm going to do it all on here.