Sharing His Experiences as an Accompanying Runner on the Day of the Inauguration of the President

making it across the finishing line here!  Photo from online…

Translated…

In the Entire Speech, He Never Once Mentioned How He’d Managed to Learn to Speak Chinese, But Used Fluent Mandarin to Talk about His Experiences as an “Accompanying Runner”………

Floating Across the Seas, Running Alongside the Visually Impaired

The thunderstorm just passed by this afternoon, there were still, light drizzling in the air. With a hand on the umbrella, a hand on the handlebars, he rode toward me leisurely, looking like a college student.

That, was the second time we’d met, in the campus of N.T.U. This graduate from Yale’s Poli-Sci department, Paul, in order to understand the political environment between China and Taiwan, he’d planned to learn to speak Chinese in a little over a year’s time. He’d asked his older schoolmate who’d just left Taiwan from the U.S., how, to enrich his life as a student here, his older schoolmate suggested that he become an accompanying running volunteer. And so, this, is the primary place for Paul to be.

But, at first, he was, quite passive. On a certain colder day, he’d not even wanted to head out, “I’d asked myself, is this, an absolutely necessary activity that I’m involved in?”, but, his visually impaired friend called out to him passionately, “Come on! Come run with me!”, and he heard the smiles from the words of his friend. “I was so surprised, how they were still, smiling so radiantly in this cold and wet weather?”, their passions chased away the coldness, and, Paul arrived at the gathering place, “Everybody was so welcoming to me, they’re all very nice, and, I was, moved by them.”

As they’d practiced running, the team gave Paul a rope, and paired him with a guy who ran quite fast, he was flattered, and scared at the same time. This rope that was the lead, looked simple enough, but was, actually, quite complicated; not only is it used to protect the runner from dangers all around, and, they’d needed to, run according to the same paces too, for instance, if the runner is slower, then, the accompanying runner needed to slow the paces down, and even change the breathing rhythms too.

picture from the newspapers…

Paul felt, that it’s not bad, being involved in this run with a visually impaired friend, more strongly, he’d felt, that he’d gained the runners’ “trust”; he’d once, tried switching roles with them, if he was also, visually impaired, could he be like them, with enough courage, to run those laps, and completely, trust in his accompanying runner’s leading him on?

This sort of running wasn’t at all fast, they’d carried on in conversations as they ran, and time passed by so quickly. As the run was over, Kuimin saw his running buddy with the cane crossed the streets, rode on the MRT………it’d, gave new meaning to his life in a foreign land now.

The accompanying runners are seemingly helping out the visually impaired runners, but, it’s exactly the opposite. On this day, if he’d stayed indoors, hearing that heavy rain pounding down on the roofs, his day may have ended in sorrow, gladly, they’d, saved him. He’d deeply understood, that the best time he’s had was, when he’d helped others, how those who’d received his assistance had, smiled toward him, or said a simple “Thank You.”

That day, our serendipitous meeting in N.T.U. gave us a chance to catch up. I’d asked Kuimin if he knew why the runner he was accompanying was blind, he shook his head, “not easy to ask.” Actually, that wasn’t secretive, so, I’d told him, that someone had, become blind due to a lab explosion; someone lost the ability to see in a car accident; and, for some, they’d not seen the light since birth…………for every case I’d told him about, he’d had that look of shock, and, sadness in his facial expressions.

His Status of Accompanying Runner Replaced His Status of a Student

May 20^th was his last day in Taiwan, he’d asked me if I have free time, because the language center was hosting a recital of sorts to show off what they’d learned in Mandarin. Just so happened, that that, was the day of the inauguration of the newly elected president, before I’d left to the school, I’d jokingly told my friends, that I was, going to be at the presidential inaugural address.

Kuimin’s topic was, “I am Your Eyes, You are My Shadow: the Bravery of the Team of Accompanying Runners of N.T.U.”. In his entire speech, he’d not mentioned how he’d learned to speak Chinese, but used his fluent Chinese to talk about his experiences as an “accompanying runner”. He’d mentioned how the N.T.U. Campus was relatively safe, but, once when he’d run with his visually impaired friend, a bicycle ran into his friend, “I felt very defeated then, that I wasn’t, watching out for him.” Although it wasn’t his fault, but, in order to chase away his guilt, Kuimin suggested that they should, partner up again; this was, a great idea. The next time, they were so very in synch, and the better memories covered over the bad one, putting that perfect end to their partnership in running together.

doing something meaningful here, photo from online…

He went on stage, and talked leisurely, used adjectives such as happy, ecstatic, glad, to describe the accompanying running experiences he’d had. He’d mentioned how the campus of N.T.U. was relatively safe.

…………

After his speech, he will board the airplane to head back to the States. We’d hugged goodbye, he said, that if there are visually impaired friends overseas that wanted to run, he would be willing to accompany them. A couple of months later, Kuimin wrote, that he got involved with a team of volunteers, and would set aside a day every week to go to Central Park in New York to be an accompanying runner, and he’d run several marathons to raise funds for his visually impaired friends in the U.S.………

The moment he’d started running, the meaning of why he ran had already, flown off of the course.

This is a story of how someone found meaning in his own life through volunteering to help someone else in need, and, helping someone CAN have this sort of an amazing effect on the one who’d helped someone out, and this act of kindness not only benefitted the people who were on the receiving end of this guy’s volunteering, but it’d also, benefitted himself too.

“We’re almost there!!!”  Not my photo…