Treadmill. Coffee. Life.

I was running in the treadmill for quite a few minutes. It's good for my heart, I told my self. It's one of the best ways to release the tensions you have. But at that moment, it's not just stress that came out. But also a lot of memories...

It was not my dream to be enrolled in a fitness gym. Not until that day. The day that I first experienced to be heart broken. That was during the second semester of my freshman year in Nursing. It was almost summer. My friends told me the news that she had another lover. But I never believed it at first. I was hoping everything for us will be fine. I thought she will be back for me.

Nevertheless, as I walked outside the campus thinking of her and me, I saw her with him; happy, in love. I wished that it was just a bad dream. But the pain was so real that I didn't even know how to breath. Suffocated with the naked truth in front of me. "I wanna die right now", was all that I ever said. Between death or life with heartache, I chose to live. "Why would I die for someone who doesn't care?", I asked myself. If I would die, the world would never stop. Her world would still revolve. Unprepared, I immediately decided to enroll in a fitness gym and had my first training while wearing jeans and a polo shirt. That day, I had a heartache but I found another love. I learned to love the gym.

Few years after, my passion in different workout routines have never ceased. After I passed the Nursing board exam, I enrolled in different fitness gyms from time to time. One day, while I was strolling inside Robinson's Place Manila, I found a booth featuring a new gym which was about to open. Fitness First. All I wanted was to ask the price but the receptionist told me their facilities first before the price. She took my twenty minutes only to find out that I cannot afford the membership fees. I was quite embarrassed when she asked me how much was my budget and I told her 1,000 pesos. She smiled when she revealed that their joining fees ranged 5,000 pesos above, plus, plus, plus..."Holy cow", I uttered. I was a newly registered nurse and jobless after all.

Thirty minutes passed and I was still on the treadmill. Sweat on my face and back. But I didn't mind. The memories were vivid enough like I was watching a television.

I was in Starbucks Midtown with my favorite mocha frappe. That was few weeks after I got the news that I passed the NCLEX-RN, an exam to be a registered nurse in the US and a few hours before my afternoon shift in Philippine General Hospital. And yes, I already have a job that time. There was something came into my mind that I should go inside the mall. I brought my coffee and kept on walking. Then at the center, I saw a mini booth of Fitness First. I was well entertained and to cut the story short, the price offered to me was easy. It was such a dream-come-true. I became a member.

There I was, running on the treadmill. Thinking of some of the chapters of my life that once gave me pain and beatitude. It's on the treadmill where I can make some realizations in life. It's where I can think of something that's worth a while and sink into oblivion the things that don't deserve to be remembered.

Almost 40 minutes of running, but I wasn't tired. I did some stretching, sipped a coffee and thought how beautiful life is.