If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe #‎ running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life.

Hey, what is it with you? Why are you so spaced out? You still haven't answered me." I probably still haven't completely adapted to the world," I said after giving it some thought. "I don't know, I feel like this isn't the real world. The people, the scene: they just don't seem real to me." Midori rested an elbow on the bar and looked at me. "There was something like that in a Jim Morrison song, I'm pretty sure." People are strange when you're a stranger.

It was a short one-paragraph item in the morning edition.

So this was how secrets got started, I thought to myself. People constructed them little by little.

As long as I kept my body moving I could forget about the emptiness inside.

Strong and independent? I’m neither. I’m just being pushed along by reality, whether I like it or not.

People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.