Viewpoint: Thanks midnight runner

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    By David Johnson

    With class just barely one week old, I can unequivocally say it feels great to be back.

    Just a few nights ago I was still apprehensive about my seemingly premature return to early-morning classes that always seem follow far too closely the previous nights study group (inevitably dispersed by a brass band rendition of “When the Saints go Marching In”). The astronomical textbook bill that tested the limits of both my credit card and my resolve to never cry in public had almost done me in.

    But then it happened.

    While riding my scooter home from a friend”s apartment late Thursday night I saw her. The preeminent icon of BYU womanhood.

    She might be your sister”s roommate, or that girl from Southern California that sits in front of you in that really boring GE class that you”ve delayed taking semester after semester after semester. She might be the young lady sitting at the round table across the terrace from you right now, that one who made “accidental” eye contact four times in the last fifteen minutes.

    She is the Midnight Runner. Throwing caution to the wind, she runs mile after mile on darkened streets in pursuit of the perfect body.

    What is she thinking? Now it”s true that according to FBI crime statistics Provo is the second safest city in the nation, and I acknowledge that physical appearance plays an important role in spouse selection-especially since the ideal LDS marriage lasts a few million years longer then the current national average. With these facts in mind I can see that there is some pressure to attract an eternally tolerable spouse, but ladies, please!

    I wonder, is this the same young lady that moments earlier called her really cute Elder”s Quorum President, mobilizing the Safe-Walk program, only to immediately dawn sweats and cross-trainers to zip off in the direction of the Tree Streets?

    I guess when you really think about it, it makes sense. We”ve all made huge sacrifices just to get it in to BYU, and whether you sacrifice sleep for grades, precious study time for a roommate that really needs to talk or your personal safety for the chance to once again fit into those jeans that looked soooo cute at the begging of freshman year, we all continually sacrifice for those things we value most. Sacrifice is just part of being a Cougar. And that”s why it”s good to be back. I know the all-nighters and cold pre-dawn journeys to campus are just around the corner, but, in the end, even after all the sacrifices, being a Cougar is worth it all.

    So for inspiring me to arise before dawn and to trudge boldly out into the darkness, Midnight Runner Girls, I salute you!

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