Over the weekend, I watched my mom run the Chicago Marathon. 18 weeks of training and it all comes down to one day. While more than 45,000 people from all over the world registered for the race, only around 38,000 actually started the race, and just over 36,000 finished. But do these numbers really matter?
In class last week we talked about how numbers drive people to make comparisons with one another. We live in a very competitive society where people are constantly focused on how their numbers stack up to other peoples'. How many cars? How many shoes? What are your grades? What did you get on the ACT? In our every day lives, especially those of high school students, numbers play a huge role.
Grades alone can’t really show the extent of one’s knowledge, just as marathon times don’t tell the whole story. Yet, we still obsess over the numbers. Even my grandpa who at 79-years-old still runs marathons, records daily in his training log how many miles he ran, and how fast.
After the race, many people ask, “what was your time?” Many people look up the times of relatives and friends online as well. But is it really about that? Instead shouldn’t we celebrate that the runner had the courage to begin, the determination to stick with it, and strength and endurance to finish? Running 26.2 miles is an accomplishment itself, no matter how fast you do it.
**I find it kind of ironic that I used so many numbers in this article about the unimportance of numbers. Clearly, I am my grandfather’s granddaughter and a victim of society…
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