well good evening I am so excited and I
feel so lucky to be here tonight because
I get to share a secret with you all and
this is a secret that I’ve been learning
over the past few years of my life and
it started 10 years ago in central
France after a long plane flight across
the ocean a four-hour train ride across
the country and then two hours wandering
in the snow in the dark in a new city
finally I found my new dorm room and I
walked into the registration office and
I realized I would have to say my own
name in a French accent that was the
first of many changes to come now a
foreign language program of study is
intense and some of you know this if you
studied another language many of you are
probably bilingual and but before you
become fluent before you really can
think in that other language it’s
absolutely exhausting every time someone
speaks to you and you try to respond
you’re translating every single sentence
and so all of us students got worn out
trying to do that every day and as a
result we started to take breaks so we
would go for walks after class we would
just go kind of wander off to the
downtown area to see if there were any
free events going on or we would go up
into the hills and see if we could touch
the clouds that day or we would you know
eventually start extending our range
really to find find new adventure really
anything we could do in a day or a
half-day we were interested in trying
out and part of it really was this this
sense of adventure
it was a new city for us but it was also
all that we could do you know we could
hardly speak our native languages or
French the
we were so exhausted and so we would
just go find something to kind of
collectively do together and enjoy that
instead eventually I went to the flea
market and I found an old tin speed road
bike and I bought it for cheap and that
was the change of things in France for
me because when I went there I was 20
years old I landed in France that I was
gonna live in a dorm and go to school
and for the first time in six years I
didn’t have access to a car so I was
walking everywhere and then finally I
got this bike and on a bike I could go
three times as far three times as fast
as I could walking it’s that really
extended my range I started to find more
in my community and really started to
really started to enjoy that experience
and feel more at home there when I got
back from France that’s stuck with me
despite having access to a car again I
borrowed an old road bike from my dad
and started riding to school right in my
classes right into my part-time job and
then again on the weekends or evenings
or something I would just go out and
explore Topeka and the thing that stuck
with me in France is that on a bike or
walking you start to get this different
perspective of the place you live in and
that was true here too I was seeing
things in a different way that I hadn’t
grown up seeing them and so this was
sort of a new a new change for me and I
didn’t realize it you know I knew that
this was sort of clearing my mind but
what I didn’t realize is that I was
actually using a scientifically proven
method for reducing stress for improving
your heart rate for improving sleep
improving core strength and posture and
stability and ultimately personal
resilience I didn’t plan on all of these
you know great physical health benefits
I was just going out and
boring and having a good time and I
brought that with with me when I came
back because it it was a habit that I
developed and that’s really the change
that happened for me and it’s really
part of this secret that I would like to
share ten minutes
so the first ten minutes of a walk or a
bike ride are the hardest right the
weather is uncomfortable you know maybe
something’s on your mind and it’s
sticking with you and kind of grinding
on you but if you can get yourself out
the door and if you can just go if you
can just start walking your body will
start to deliver those other benefits
that I listed your mood starts to
improve whether you want it to or not
maybe you want to stay mad but if you’re
walking it’s tough and you will be
amazed at how your mind starts to wander
and what you see differently even in
your own city that you think you know
well once you get past that first ten
minutes you start to open up to
possibilities and your mind will embrace
creativity more and you’ll see things in
a different way
even though you think you know topeka
from one perspective this might look
like a parking garage but from another
it looks like a park so I urge you to in
the next week try and take ten or
fifteen minutes and see if you can go
out and go for a walk or go for a bike
ride or go do some sort of physical
activity outside that will change your
perspective and I guarantee you’ll see
something that you didn’t expect to see
it’s part of this activity and it’s
really part of why I do what I do and I
promise if you go out there and you look
for something different you won’t be
bored thank you
you
feel so lucky to be here tonight because
I get to share a secret with you all and
this is a secret that I’ve been learning
over the past few years of my life and
it started 10 years ago in central
France after a long plane flight across
the ocean a four-hour train ride across
the country and then two hours wandering
in the snow in the dark in a new city
finally I found my new dorm room and I
walked into the registration office and
I realized I would have to say my own
name in a French accent that was the
first of many changes to come now a
foreign language program of study is
intense and some of you know this if you
studied another language many of you are
probably bilingual and but before you
become fluent before you really can
think in that other language it’s
absolutely exhausting every time someone
speaks to you and you try to respond
you’re translating every single sentence
and so all of us students got worn out
trying to do that every day and as a
result we started to take breaks so we
would go for walks after class we would
just go kind of wander off to the
downtown area to see if there were any
free events going on or we would go up
into the hills and see if we could touch
the clouds that day or we would you know
eventually start extending our range
really to find find new adventure really
anything we could do in a day or a
half-day we were interested in trying
out and part of it really was this this
sense of adventure
it was a new city for us but it was also
all that we could do you know we could
hardly speak our native languages or
French the
we were so exhausted and so we would
just go find something to kind of
collectively do together and enjoy that
instead eventually I went to the flea
market and I found an old tin speed road
bike and I bought it for cheap and that
was the change of things in France for
me because when I went there I was 20
years old I landed in France that I was
gonna live in a dorm and go to school
and for the first time in six years I
didn’t have access to a car so I was
walking everywhere and then finally I
got this bike and on a bike I could go
three times as far three times as fast
as I could walking it’s that really
extended my range I started to find more
in my community and really started to
really started to enjoy that experience
and feel more at home there when I got
back from France that’s stuck with me
despite having access to a car again I
borrowed an old road bike from my dad
and started riding to school right in my
classes right into my part-time job and
then again on the weekends or evenings
or something I would just go out and
explore Topeka and the thing that stuck
with me in France is that on a bike or
walking you start to get this different
perspective of the place you live in and
that was true here too I was seeing
things in a different way that I hadn’t
grown up seeing them and so this was
sort of a new a new change for me and I
didn’t realize it you know I knew that
this was sort of clearing my mind but
what I didn’t realize is that I was
actually using a scientifically proven
method for reducing stress for improving
your heart rate for improving sleep
improving core strength and posture and
stability and ultimately personal
resilience I didn’t plan on all of these
you know great physical health benefits
I was just going out and
boring and having a good time and I
brought that with with me when I came
back because it it was a habit that I
developed and that’s really the change
that happened for me and it’s really
part of this secret that I would like to
share ten minutes
so the first ten minutes of a walk or a
bike ride are the hardest right the
weather is uncomfortable you know maybe
something’s on your mind and it’s
sticking with you and kind of grinding
on you but if you can get yourself out
the door and if you can just go if you
can just start walking your body will
start to deliver those other benefits
that I listed your mood starts to
improve whether you want it to or not
maybe you want to stay mad but if you’re
walking it’s tough and you will be
amazed at how your mind starts to wander
and what you see differently even in
your own city that you think you know
well once you get past that first ten
minutes you start to open up to
possibilities and your mind will embrace
creativity more and you’ll see things in
a different way
even though you think you know topeka
from one perspective this might look
like a parking garage but from another
it looks like a park so I urge you to in
the next week try and take ten or
fifteen minutes and see if you can go
out and go for a walk or go for a bike
ride or go do some sort of physical
activity outside that will change your
perspective and I guarantee you’ll see
something that you didn’t expect to see
it’s part of this activity and it’s
really part of why I do what I do and I
promise if you go out there and you look
for something different you won’t be
bored thank you
you
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