So Many Ways to Help

Yes, today's post is ultimately about boot camp; but I want to start with something more important.

I make a lot of jokes here about pain, sobbing, misery, and how hard this is. But in reality I am a very fortunate person who is in a safe place, with a dry home, and not under immediate threat of a nuclear power plant meltdown. The people of Japan can't say that right now. The situation far east of us is very serious, and there are many very real people in very real danger. I know that times are difficult for many of us financially right now, but if you can, please make a donation to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders, or another reputible charity that is working to help.

One of the easiest ways to donate is to text the word REDCROSS to 90999, and your $10 donation will just show up on your cell phone bill, which probably has so many mystery charges on it every month anyway that you won't even notice.

Okay, now back to boot camp.

Today we had new recruits, which is awesome and exciting! I love our team and I love seeing familiar faces every day, but I also really love seeing the team grow. This has been one of the best things I've ever done for myself; I want to see it be one of the best things lots of other people do for themselves, too!

Talking to today's first-timers, I heard many of the same fears and concerns I had. These other people look so in shape...can I do this? How sore am I going to be? Is Sgt. Ken going to be really mean?

The class vetrans were awesome about gathering around the newbies and reassuring them, motivating them, and sharing their enthusiasm about the class. I think they were relaxed and ready to go when the clock struck 5:30...

...and it ran through my head, Oh, God, somebody needs to WARN THEM!!

We started our warm-up, which is a workout in itself. I recognized the look in the eyes of the new recruits behind me. This is a warm-up??

As I walked back to get a drink of water, I assured them that every single person in the class had that exact thought on their first day. And pretty much every day after that, too.

Today's workout was fast and exhausting. It was one of those that gave me that false sense of relief as we changed exercises, only to have that relief dashed when my brain caught up with my body and realized that the next exercise was going to be just as painful...

We all made it through. Missi, one of our newbies, asked me at the end, "Did you do as badly on your first day as I did today?"

First of all, I want to say to Missi and both of our other first-timers, do not sell yourself short for what you did today. You all did awesome. This is hard; it is supposed to be hard. It is designed to push you further than you think you can go, and as you get stronger, you will be able to do more and more every time. You were rockstars today, and don't you forget that.

Second, hell yes, I did as badly on my first day as you. Worse, in fact. I know how you felt today. I was very weak, very out of shape, and not prepared for this at all. No one's first day has ever been as ugly as mine. But I did the only thing that would fix that: I came back.

And today, I am rocking a brand new pair of size 12 jeans. That's down a size from when I started. And they fit great.

Non-boot camp related: I got to play music yesterday with my friend Arwen. We have a couple of gigs coming up in the next few months so we got together to read through some stuff. It was my first time playing with a harp player, and it was so much fun!