Search and Recovery

I went on a run today! A short one, 3.2 miles around the Gale loop. I have no commitments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 11-12 so I'm hoping for that to become my running time.

As I approached Currier, my dorm, and the completion of my run, I realized that my ID card was no longer attached to my armband. I had checked periodically during my run to make sure it was still there, but it seemed so snugly attached that I didn't check for the last while. So I couldn't get into my building to restart my laundry or take a shower. I needed to restart my laundry because, as I realized during my run, I had forgotten to put detergent in.

I turned around and retraced my steps. Today was rather windy so I didn't know how far it might have blustered away. I zig-zagged across the sidewalk, searching for a shiny object, white or yellow, depending on which side was facing me. I didn't want to run because I thought I would have a better chance of seeing it at a slow pace. I retraced the trek that I've been making to and from the JRC three times each day for Passover meals, a hilly trek indeed.

I reached the Center for Developmental Economics and headed towards the Clark. And after about a half-mile of searching, I spotted my card, resting on the grass, my wide-eyed freshman mug smiling up at me. I scooped it up and trotted home to address my stagnant laundry situation.

I'm not sure what made me search for so long to find my card, and I'm not sure how much longer I would have searched. It could have blown away, fallen in a river, been picked up by someone trying to help me, or landed in a piece of shrubbery, and I would never have found it. And I'm not sure how the rest of my day would have turned out had I given up before finding my card. I really didn't want my day to continue until I had recovered it. So I was fortunate that it was so poorly hidden.

And the upshot? Twenty minutes subtracted from my day. Just as if I had gone on a slightly longer run. And now I have a more thorough perspective of the area surrounding the sidewalks of Williamstown. And I found my card.