It Takes a Village

Last week was bittersweet.

Last week we saw 37 cities, and even pledging cities, come together on our favourite day of the week to pay tribute to Ben O’Meara who lived and breathed NP. The hardest of all the core members. The dual citizen of NP Boston and Worcester (aka WOO). The man in the bubble who’s red mohawk would pop up on your Instagram feed and like all your November Project posts. He supported EVERYONE. Emily Saul of Boston wrote an amazing blog about him and what we are all doing here, and she hit the nail on the head… We are more than fitness, we are family.

Here in Vancouver, we have our own family. In case you didn’t know, or are new, Richard has 17 babies. Most recently, he and his wife welcomed twins. When they arrived, he took a leave of absence for 8ish weeks. EIGHT. WHOLE. WEEKS.

Guess what? I’m a newbie leader. Yep, it’s true. When Richard left, I had only been doing this for 6 months. SIX. MONTHS. So… 6 months to being “in charge” … That’s a lot pressure on a girl, but alas I was ready for it. Or I at least faked it for sure. The best compliment has been BG forgetting I’m new, so I must be doing something right.

We called it #DADDYRICHTAKEOVER… We called up some of our tribe members and asked if they would consider helping out – become Guest Leaders. With several “F*CK YEAHS”, we had our group and all was left to me and each one of those leaders each week. For me, I had a lot of nervous excitement; I really wanted to see what these individuals would come up with. I wanted to see how well we worked together, get to know them better. The experience as a whole was amazing. I was blown away by how much thought went into their planning; the creativity of not only the workout itself, but themes. Looking back, I feel those 8 weeks made me better as a leader. I definitely had to go through the details of the morning and the workout with a fine toothed comb. I needed to be on the ball with new members, waivers, explanations, have patience, and most of all remember to continue a welcoming environment for everyone. I also wanted the guest leaders to feel “special” like I did when I got to guest lead. Each week, I wrote a poem specifically for that person; we took an awesome selfie together, I boasted about them on IG/FB, they wrote a blog entry about their experience and what NP means to them.

What I loved about working with these people were the realizations and what we as leaders have to deal with for each workout. For instance, the weather (in some regions) can really screw up a great workout; the amount of newbies that show up; how do we explain an exercise in a simple manner…

“I don’t know how you guys do this every week.”

“There’s a lot more to this than I realized.”

“I’m so nervous!”

It’s more than a couple hours on a Wednesday morning. It’s more than just a workout. Than the hugs. The high fives. The sweat. It’s about community. It’s about the people in our tribe. It’s about the people in EVERY tribe. It’s about the reasons people #justshowup. #DADDYRICHTAKEOVER wasn’t just about having someone substitute while he was absent, it was about keeping our tribe strong. There are strength in numbers and the 7 people who stepped up proved that. Everyone in our tribe is strong in their own individual way. It really does take a village to make this crazy thing we are doing work.

#thetribeisstrong

 

Love, Mel G

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