All About Toes For Birkenstock Sandals4less Scholarship

     As a runner, my feet are very important to me,so I have to be very aware of what goes on down there. Blisters on the strangest places (once I had four at a time, two on the back of each heel) as well as extreme callouses, especially on my big toe. Running has ruined my chances of ever being able to get a pedicure on a whim, my feet schedule the pampering, but the woman will probably wonder how much of that callous really needs to come off, or I might not go out and just do my nails at home because of the bandages I'll have to put around my toes to prevent the nails from cutting into the toe next to it. Yeah, my toenails cut into the taller one next to it, so they always have to be kept a short as possible. Sometimes I go for a long run, maybe ten miles, and come back, take off my shoes, and notice that there is a spot of blood on my sock. So I go to the bathroom and examine the damage this time. I'll come out and my Cross Country team will wonder why I need a band aid ever week.

      But I suppose it is worth it when you consider that I have the record time at my school for a 4K (that's 2.5 miles for you non-metric folk). While my toes give me problems, I can honestly say that I'm glad I don't have it as bad as some other people I know. I never got shin splints, which most people do when they start running, never twisted or sprained an ankle while running on the trails or on ice/snow, and I've never had any kind of injury where I wasn't able to run. So thanks, God, for my awesome bones and muscles, not to mention the fact that I rarely get ill. That means I get to run every stinking day. Horray? At least I have awesome calves.

        Sometimes I get really random cramps in my feet/ toes. Like before a meet a few months ago for track I had a terrible tightness along the inside of one of my feet, which stopped in, like, four seconds. Then once on the other foot, then never again; and this was the day before the meet, after an easy work out! At least I have great shoes and an awesome runner's tan, among others...

 In conclusion:

 

Now I just have to work on my core!

Expensive Textbooks, Is Online A Good Alternative?

     Paying for college is already a big hassle, as many people know, and causes increasing amounts of stress to build up in the young adults taking on the challenge of furthering their education. When you add the cost of living to the mix things get even tighter. Books alone can cost $100. Per book. The cost can be lowered by buying used, or using a friend's old book, but sometimes that isn't an option. One way to eliminate these costs is online books. They take up no space, you don't have to lug them around in a bag, there's no forgetting your book, because it is most likely available on your phone and on the school's library computers. I think that online books would be a great investment that would greatly benefit the lives, and wallets, of many college students.
     Online books would free up space in the student's room, making it less cluttered and providing for a better study space. Less physical books would also benefit the student's health, as a college study on young children shows: http://www.montclair.edu/Detectives/curriculum/docs/4.4arts1.doc.pdf. Heavy books can cause neck and back problems early on, and will only get worse with age, (199) and let's not forget the money you save.
     However, these books may not be for everyone. I have a English professor who loves to annotate and highlight and bookmark all over her books; I don't think she could ever deal with learning from an online book. I personally prefer to have a physical book over an electronic copy, which is why I am not a very avid user of products like Nooks and Kindles.(273)
     This is an individual sensitive subject, but I think that the best solution is to have both options available to students so that they can make the best choice for themselves.