A word of warning: NO science was involved in the making of the next post!
So I recently entered a story competition about my “pedometer experience,” after completing a pedometer challenge with other students at Trinity as part of the Smarter Travel Workplaces initiative.
I was thrilled to learn that my story won first prize and I thought I’d share it here:
A Pedometer’s Experience: A Heart Warming Tale
Here we go! STEP-STEP-STEP, ladies and gentlemen, let the counting begin! Sometimes being a pedometer is difficult. I don’t like doing all this counting. You’d imagine I had a Maths degree for all the counting I am forced to do. Yes, you heard me: FORCED! Do you think I chose this life? Anyway, let’s be serious, this job isn’t too onerous compared to what my owner has to do: 15.000 steps in one day? Ha! Excuse me while I chuckle. But, as funny as it is seeing my owner exhausted at the end of a run, whilst I am perched very comfortably on her waist, I did experience tough days, when I felt quite lonely… Ones where I was forgotten on a desk, abandoned in a bathroom, or shoved against abrasive clothing. My owner gets fitter, but I get more and more stressed!
1-2-3-4, all these numbers really do get boring. In fact, I’m sure you won’t mind me confessing that sometimes I skip a few counts just to speed things up.
It was precisely during one such moment of boredom on day 5, somewhere in between 9778 and 9779, that something truly wonderful occurred: my owner had been walking idly around the house- mindlessly bumping me into several items of furniture, might I add- when, suddenly a loud sound caused both my owner and I to jump! She started walking swiftly towards the door- 9887,9888, 9889- opened it and- behold!– a vision lay before my eyes: in front of me was another pedometer of the handsomest kind I had ever seen, clipped on to the waist of another human. I sensed my owner was excited too as she sprinted towards the human to hug him- 9890,9891- and, much to my surprise, I was catapulted in the arms of the pedometer of my dreams!
Since that fateful day, my life has been filled by a series of blissful runs and walks together, accompanied by our owners! Guess what? I am never to be a lonely, bored pedometer again.
Not Just Science 