Yesterday on my somewhat lengthy (30 minute) commute from the swim school to our house, I gave our emotional highs and lows some thought. After teaching between 40 and 45 kiddos over 4.5 hours at the swim school, sometimes I leave feeling completely drained and defeated. Like those children ranging in age from 3 to 10 got the best of me, and Matt gets the what’s left (if any) Annie charisma. My energies really depend on how my classes go. It’s incredible the energy we carry around every day, energy we can give or deprive others of. Sometimes my swim students seem to devote all of their energy to extracting every once of patience out of me and leaving me parched and grumpy. Other days, they seem to only be capable of lifting me up with their smiles, attentiveness, and gratitude. Kids don’t know how to fake gratitude, so when you feel it, you know it’s coming from a sincere place which makes it all the more satisfying…
That wasn’t where I wanted to go with this. The miracle I was pondering last night was the adrenaline rush/endorphin rush you get after mustering all of your energy to prepare something…be it a school project, a work presentation, a big race, a swim clinic, a speech. Truly when I spend time building a plan and driving toward a goal, when I finish the task at hand, I feel either completely drained or like I’m levitating in a state of euphoria. That’s why I brought up the swim school! Now I remember 🙂 When Matt and I conduct a swim clinic, we pour our hearts into our stories and our minds into the techniques we teach to the kids. There is an obligation to inspire and impart our knowledge. We feel that looming responsibility prior to every swim clinic. We do not dread it, but we feel it in our gut. So when we conclude one of our 4-hour, energy-tolling swim clinics, we usually get a burst of energy from the positive impact we were blessed to make. We’ve had a few clinics where we did not feel like we got the job done. Maybe the kids were complaining or very transparent about not wanting to be present, and a few of those in a group can make us feel defeated.
How cool is is that we are anatomically wired to be chemically rewarded by hard work? The more time and energy is invested, the greater that high is. I’ll never forget the weightlessness I felt when I was warming down after a terrific swim. Sometimes I’d be embarrassed of my own giddiness because I couldn’t smear the smile off my face while swimming off my lactic acid. I just wanted to take a moment this morning and appreciate the endorphin rush God programmed us to get after accomplishing a worthy feat. Not all endorphin rushes stem from morally upstanding things, but I’m willing to bet the very best ones do.
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One of my most-memorable endorphin rushes at NCAAs 2010.
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