My intellectual values can be defined by a simple four-letter phase, “I Run 4 Evan”. Everybody who has talked to me for at least five minutes knows about my dedication and love of running. However, what most people don’t know are the events that led up to me getting started in the IRun4 movement, and how an eleven-year-old boy has changed every value in my life forever.
I was raised by a single mom. While many people look down at me with sympathy when they hear that fact, I couldn’t be more proud of my upbringing. My mom is a take life by the horns, kind of person. She had me at the age of seventeen, and today at the age of thirty-six she only has a year left in her Masters of Nursing. During that nineteen-year period she had three more children, reached her goal of attainting her associates and bachelors degrees, and beat stage- three cancer.
My mother is one of the strongest women I know, and through her I learned to value my own independence and I saw how getting an education could change your life. I learned not to take any intellectual experience for granted, and I learned that hard work is the most important part in obtaining your academic goals. My mom is also one of the most compassionate people I have met. Due to her I started to volunteer in facilities that housed the physically disabled.
While volunteering, I learned about a newly started program called “IRun4”. IRun4 matches a runner with a buddy who has a disability. This is how Evan and his family came into my life. Evan was adopted at the age of 4 from the Ukraine. His family also has sixteen other children, thirteen of which are adopted. Seven of their children have intellectual and physical disabilities caused by their biological mother using substances while she was pregnant. This is where my passion of addiction medicine formed. While I had shadowed addiction medicine physicians in the past, I never saw the effects that addictions had on children.
Now addiction medicine is where I see the direction of my future going, and I strive to one-day help all the children who may be affected by this disease. Because of Evan I have learned to value every intellectual experience I have. When I became Evan’s buddy I was meant to be more than just his legs, I am supposed to seize every opportunity that I can for us. God not only gave me the gift of mobility, but he gave me so many intellectual gifts. Whether its running collegiately, or challenging myself to join the addiction medicine field, I do it all because of Evan.
Due to the experiences I listed above, I believe my strongest of Cronen’s qualities is; “They nurture and empower the people around them.” Through IRun4 and Evan’s family I have learned that so much can be learned from the people that we often cast to the side. We need to learn to empower and listen to the disabled community, because so often they have perspectives that we overlook. Since being matched with Evan, I have learned how to listen and look at other people’s viewpoints, and through that I now value others intellectual opinions more.
Honestly, I am a Type A person. I plan out every aspect of my life, and when life doesn’t go according to plan I tend to freak out. Because of this my weakest quality of Cronan’s list is; “They can solve a variety of puzzles and problems”. I excel at problem solving when I am in my own comfort zone. However, once life starts to differ from my plan, my problem solving skills disappear. I tend to breakdown when faced with an unplanned problem, rather than try to develop the steps to overcome it in a practical way.
I am lucky to have experienced the profound power of encouraging and being supported by a little boy who was once a complete stranger to me. Running can be more than just about health. Running for me it is more than dedicating my miles to and creating awareness for children like Evan, it’s about learning to grow and develop in my own intellectual values. I have so much more to learn, and I can grow in so many ways but I will always run for and grow with Evan.
