Serendipity and Grete's Gallop

At graduation in June, the Dean of Brooklyn Law School stood at the podium and addressed my class. It wasn’t the speech you would expect from a Law School Dean. He focused on the concept of serendipity, and the role it has played in his life.

Since then, I’ve done a lot of thinking about serendipity. I’ve thought about how much control you really have in your own future. Life can’t always be planned, but we certainly have the ability to put ourselves out there. And every so often, we will get lucky due to some unexpected force.

Today I embarked on my longest run: 20 miles. I ran 7 miles, and then competed in Grete’s Great Gallop Half-Marathon in Central Park. The weather was perfect, low 60′s and overcast. But, I was exhausted. With a few miles to the finish, mid-way up a hill I was looking for a motivation in any form. Then, a stranger hollered: “There’s no success without a struggle!”

It was perfect. It was just what I needed to pull me through the final miles. It was serendipitous.