Back on My Feet as an organization likes to run events that offer a variety of ways to get from beginning to end. Sometimes there are multiple options for relays. Sometimes it is alone or relay. I participated in 20in24 back in 2011 and don't recall the name of my relay team for that one. I am about to participate in another Back on My Feet relay (this time in Baltimore) called Sneaks Come Out at Night--or just "Sneaks" for short.
The team will be one of my training partners, Lauren, and her mother, Dee. I've known them for over five years, run consistently with Lauren for more than four of those, and participated in one relay with Lauren before. When we ran a two person marathon relay, we called ourselves Running Family. We have developed a friendship close enough to be family. And that is what we had in common.
I'd run another two person relay with a former student of mine. I mentored her about public health and some things about life in general. She was the better runner and mentored me about running and service through running. Our commonalities led to Who's the Mentor?
So, as the Sneaks race is now less than five weeks away and we formed our team, Lauren asked if I had any suggestions for a team name. I didn't at first, but commented on how the themes of our love of animals and the importance of family are commonalities.
Despite having no idea at first, it stayed in the back of my mind. One day this week, a colleague asked how I keep up with current events and professional development. I gave an answer and then pondered aloud whether I should include reading Chronicle of Higher Education given my career goals.
Later in the week, I was skimming over the online version and found something that caught my attention about people who like academic administration. I read the entire opinion piece.
In this piece, the author cited Harry Potter and talked mentioned who Professor Sprout's teaching led to Neville Longbottom becoming the next Professor of Herbology. The author referred to this as a popular culture example of the behind the scenes work that administrators do. I liked that.
In thinking about Harry Potter for a bit, it occurred to me that the spell names sounded like Latin. So, I thought about how I could turn our common love for pets into a team name in Latin that might sound cool.
I tried a translation for animal lovers but even I could recognize that what it first gave me had potentially sexual connotations.
Interestingly enough with a quick search online, someone else had posed a similar question about translating "animal lover" into Latin. (Although it did not seem to be related to a relay team.)
The answer to the earlier question had been to try "friends of animals" rather than animal lovers to capture the intent.
So, I looked it up and back translated leading to "amicis animalium". And with that, we will see whether the whole team agrees or not.
Makes me wonder what other names I'd come up with if I run on any more relay teams. My guiding goals is always to try to find things that reflect on the group's commonalities while sounding in some way, "cool".
And while I'm posting this in 56 Frickin' Miles, this is definitely an interesting "dot connecting" exercise.
The team will be one of my training partners, Lauren, and her mother, Dee. I've known them for over five years, run consistently with Lauren for more than four of those, and participated in one relay with Lauren before. When we ran a two person marathon relay, we called ourselves Running Family. We have developed a friendship close enough to be family. And that is what we had in common.
I'd run another two person relay with a former student of mine. I mentored her about public health and some things about life in general. She was the better runner and mentored me about running and service through running. Our commonalities led to Who's the Mentor?
So, as the Sneaks race is now less than five weeks away and we formed our team, Lauren asked if I had any suggestions for a team name. I didn't at first, but commented on how the themes of our love of animals and the importance of family are commonalities.
Despite having no idea at first, it stayed in the back of my mind. One day this week, a colleague asked how I keep up with current events and professional development. I gave an answer and then pondered aloud whether I should include reading Chronicle of Higher Education given my career goals.
Later in the week, I was skimming over the online version and found something that caught my attention about people who like academic administration. I read the entire opinion piece.
In this piece, the author cited Harry Potter and talked mentioned who Professor Sprout's teaching led to Neville Longbottom becoming the next Professor of Herbology. The author referred to this as a popular culture example of the behind the scenes work that administrators do. I liked that.
In thinking about Harry Potter for a bit, it occurred to me that the spell names sounded like Latin. So, I thought about how I could turn our common love for pets into a team name in Latin that might sound cool.
I tried a translation for animal lovers but even I could recognize that what it first gave me had potentially sexual connotations.
Interestingly enough with a quick search online, someone else had posed a similar question about translating "animal lover" into Latin. (Although it did not seem to be related to a relay team.)
The answer to the earlier question had been to try "friends of animals" rather than animal lovers to capture the intent.
So, I looked it up and back translated leading to "amicis animalium". And with that, we will see whether the whole team agrees or not.
Makes me wonder what other names I'd come up with if I run on any more relay teams. My guiding goals is always to try to find things that reflect on the group's commonalities while sounding in some way, "cool".
And while I'm posting this in 56 Frickin' Miles, this is definitely an interesting "dot connecting" exercise.
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