Why I Run

Hello,
My name is Maayan Gordon and I am a college freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. This past year, an amazing boy named Ezra Sherman who I knew from my guide dog puppy group (Guide Puppies of Seattle) passed away very shortly after being diagnosed with Leukemia. I was deeply saddened by such a great loss and I felt the grief of our entire community at his passing. I remember his memorial service as being one of the most difficult days of my life as I witnessed the intense pain of hundreds of people in our community whose lives Ezra had touched. For a long time, this grief made me feel helpless and depressed. But recently, I met and became friends with someone who had Leukemia for 4 years and against the odds, beat it. A stronger person I have never met, and I am very proud to be a friend and teammate of Tasha Serna-Gallegos. She has helped inspire me to run the LA Marathon to raise money for cancer research. One of the things that I hate most in life is running. It is painful, long, and tedious, but what Tasha did by beating cancer makes running a marathon seem like eating my favorite dessert.