My dearest Adventurers, have you ever thought about the things that happened to you that brought you to the place you’re in now? The experiences that shaped you and helped you become the person that you are? What about the steps you took? I wanted to spend the next posts talking about that. What brought me to this place? Specifically, how I came to start doing CrossFit and moved into the place that I’m in now. I promise not to do that all-in-one post, so this will be a series of posts, and I hope you all enjoy seeing my adventure.
I have always enjoyed being active. I have played softball and volleyball in school and dreamt of playing softball in the Olympics (before it was pulled and eventually brought back). I started lifting weights in college and realized how much I enjoyed it. When I joined the military, I had the chance to try kickboxing for the first time. A whole new experience that I loved. It was a great opportunity to exert bursts of energy and feel like I was working out stress simultaneously, but it wasn’t right.
After my daughter was born, I struggled, like many new moms, to find something for me. It was hard to find time for myself. We walked a lot, and I ran, but my heart was never there. When my son was born a few years later I realized I had to find a way to set aside time in a busy day. To have time that focused on me. Not a mom, a wife, or anything other than Sarah. I did not like the person I saw in the mirror in the morning, and I did not want to be her anymore.
I was a skeptic, Adventurers, when someone recommended CrossFit. It was 2019, and I’d heard all the crazy things about those people. But they also lifted weights, many of them, and I loved lifting weights more than any other type of fitness I’d ever done. I remember going into the gym with my son, who was six months old, in June in Georgia and seeing the stereotype: very fit people working out in shorts, no shirts, and lots of yelling. I was overwhelmed. I was terrified. This was not for me. I was an overweight mom who just wanted to drop a few pounds.
But I got very lucky. The general manager and coaches at the gym I joined, CrossFit Stars and Bars, embraced me and every insecurity that I had. I encouraged me, they pushed me and helped me to grow. They snuck extra weight onto my barbell and dared me to do extra reps. They made me part of their family. They carried my infant while they coached me so I could keep working out for the whole hour I was there. I was part of a community that made me feel whole.
Then COVID hit. Like everyone else in the world, my everything turned upside down. I had been in my gym for six months, and suddenly, it was closed. I had just started to find myself and create my own identity, and now that was gone. Then my gym showed us why we were a community: they created programming we could do from home, they loaned out equipment, and all we had to do was pay our monthly membership and support local business owners. So, I was working out at home and running (and actually enjoying it). I lifted weights in my driveway and did box step-ups with my son strapped to my back.
When the gym opened back up, and we were together again, separated by white lines of tape, the world started coming together again. I was back to having a whole hour a day when I was just Sarah. I wasn’t a mom, a wife, or an employee. I was just Sarah, and that hour of my morning before my grown-up day started made everything right.
CrossFit saved me, and I’ll be forever grateful.
Let’s go back home!