Team Keegsie's Fourth Story Of The Month Winner! 

Congrats to Greta! Her heartfelt story is about the connection running can bring between people. 

I’m studying abroad in the USA right now and I’m from Germany. In the beginning I was scared because of the fact that I was learning English and it’s not my language. After a few days that I was here, my host family threw a welcome party with our neighbors for me. We ended up talking about sports. So I said I would like to run XC and track, and one of our neighbor's daughters turned around and told me that they have never competed before because they don’t have enough girls, and it would be perfect if I would join.

So, the next day after school, I went to practice not really knowing anyone except that girls from my neighborhood. But as soon as she sees that I’m here. she tells the coach who I am. He introduced me to all the 14 others in the really small XC team. And even though I was really scared at first, track and XC was probably the best decision I could have made. All these people made me feel so welcome and are now so close to me. Every meet and Cross country race was an experience that I will always remember even when I have to leave all that behind again in June.

These 14 people and me, even though I had no idea who they were and used to live 10,000 miles away from them, had something in common. Not the language or anything else, no we all love running for fun. Track made me realize that running is about so much more than the physical exercise, it’s about meeting people that have fun doing the same things you like. Track and Cross Country showed me that even though I am from a different continent and speak a different language, humans are humans everywhere. I personally like to run and that’s how I started to meet the most amazing friends I could have ever asked for.

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