Published 2011-11-08T18:54:00Z”/>

Marty Salgado

At 3 a.m., I close my laptop after typing the last sentence for an online rhetoric project. I haven’t eaten since breakfast when I had the last of my food, a packet of oatmeal. As I lay awake in bed waiting for sleep to find me, I come to a horrible realization.

“Oh no,” I thought. “I forgot to do my run today.”

College is detrimental to my health.

During a week of nights like this, I can’t remember eating a full meal, or half of a meal at that, and I definitely didn’t make it to the gym. Every day I make myself a to-do list, and after I get everything down, I throw “run seven miles today” at the bottom.

I have been running since I joined cross-country in high school. When I run, the stress of school slips away with every pound to the ground my foot takes. It’s not only a great stress reliever, but it keeps my heart healthy.

I am currently training for a half marathon that’s in December. I want to be ready, but I find my busy school schedule constantly getting in the way. I wake up, go to class, walk to The Orion and edit my column – all without having eaten breakfast.

I want to pedal my way back home, but I have class, and I can’t buy anything at the Bell Memorial Union because I’m a college student who needs to pay rent.

I also have to juggle my tutoring for CAVE because I want to give something back to my community.

It’s very hard to work for others, do well in school and think about graduate school. At the end of the day I find myself in bed at midnight – if I am lucky.

I didn’t realize that going to school to get a degree caused a slow deterioration in health, and for those who drink constantly a heavy toll on their organs.

There are some people out there who can manage to go to school and make it to the gym as well, but someone like me, who volunteers and puts his effort into school, tends to see their health deteriorate for school’s sake. We see this when we watch our peers constantly blowing their noses from colds and sore throats caused by exhaustion or lack of sleep.

Some men out there start to look like their fathers because all the college stress is causing male pattern baldness.

In order to stay fit throughout all of the things I am involved in, I have found a gym partner. We motivate each other – I know I have to meet him at the gym, because if I don’t, I will be letting more than just

myself down.

I’ve also decided that I just need to come to school dressed ready to go or to bring gym clothes. This will make me stay on campus and not get distracted after class when I go home to change.

All of us came to Chico State to improve our minds, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of our bodies.

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<strong>Marty Salgado can be reached at</strong>

<em>[email protected]</em>