Bist du gut? (ORL)

During her 2nd week of living in the US, Neele showed up. She came alone. She came with a smile. And she never stopped showing up.

We learned that Neele was to move back to her home country this past month (Nov 2017)… but first, take this oar handle back with you. Our Positivity Award winner, Neele (pronounced NEE-luh) shares how she defines November Project and what her journey was like living overseas.

Thank you, Neele, for being here and sharing your heartfelt story:

November Project: pumpkin squats, ninja workout, egg hunt, Epcot center, swims, running, cart wheels, spitting in cups, bouncing and screaming as loud as possible…

My first thought when Allison asked me to write something about myself and my story for the November Project blog was „crap I hope I dont make many grammatical and typo errors“. (:

With this said, I am not from America; I am from Germany.

I am the youngest of 4 children and the one who was more interested in sports, laughing, and having fun than in school. My brother is probably the reason why I am crazy about sports. What else can be better than putting his little sister in the soccer goal? Sport was always my main focus and also my escape. I was good in sport and I enjoyed being around people who shared the same passion.

In 2016, I got the offer to work for a company in Orlando, Florida. Heck yeah! Sun and Universal Studios – I am in! This might sound easy, but it wasn’t.

I had a fiancé, Lars. Due to the fact that Lars won’t get a visa we had to make a decision. He started his Master degree in Germany while I prepared my move to America. After months of waiting, I finally received my visa and within a week we booked the flight to the next big adventure. Luckily, Lars could come for two weeks with me. We went apartment-hunting, furniture shopping and tried to settle. It was very important to make all the decisions together, even though I would be alone for most of the time.

I will never forget the Monday I had to drive Lars to the airport. We would be thousands of miles and 6 time zones apart. That Monday night, I picked up the Baldwin Living Newspaper and flipped through it. A picture with athletic people caught my eye, and it said something about Orlando Fit Project and free fitness and 6.29am! Wait… 6.29am? But it’s right around the corner from my house. I called Lars the next day and told him about it. I will never forget it: “I think I will go to it… I don’t even know if people are actually there… but it might not hurt to see if anyone will be there… and it’s for free… I mean if no one shows up, then I just go home… Its only five minutes away… ” I was really afraid, because I just couldn’t imagine that people actually show up when it’s for free and so early. So me, setting my alarm at 6.15am, rolling out of bed (literally), putting on some clothes, and talking to Lars while I am on the way to discover that Orlando Fit Project is a real thing.

Forty-five minutes later, I did spider web crawls and pumpkin squats and was introduced to randomly hugging people, who shortly became my family in Orlando. After these 45 minutes of fun and workout, I was hooked, or maybe infected?! Everyone was so nice and I couldn’t wait for the following Wednesday. After three or four weeks, I was told that there even was a running group starting at 5.45am. I mean, these times… I would have laughed about that in Germany. But I love running, so the same questions ran through my head: who really shows up to run at 5.45am, to only discover that people run to the morning run and are already up since 4am. It was amazing. I joined the running group, the workout and later the breakfast group too.

In December 2016, Orlando Fit Project became November Project and now I was totally confused. December = November Project? Well ok … I eventually learned what a great thing November Project is. It brings every sort of people together, the best thing: it’s not about to be the best, it’s about socializing, it’s about meeting people, it’s about having fun.

What I love most about November Project: yelling GOOD MORNING and OH YEAH! It’s not about listening to everyone talk about how early it is or how tired one is or that work sucks. It’s about greeting the day together, starting the day with not only a good morning, but making it an amazing morning.

I believe in positivity – if you start the day positive and end the day by reminding yourself about two positive things that has happened to you during the day, then you will be a happier person. Wednesday mornings became my favorite day. I added a new house rule: whoever wants to visit me had to get up at the latest at 6.15am to join NP on Wednesdays, if not, no free bed for that person 😉 For that, at least 16 other Germans including friends, sister, best men and maid of honor, brother in law, childhood neighbors, my mum and, obviously, Lars came with me and all loved it.
(Note: Neele ensured that a part of her bachelorette party included a November Project workout.)

What started as the best time of my life turned into the most challenging time of my life. In August 2017, I got the notification that I couldn’t be paid anymore. The challenge was: Lars and me love Orlando and NP. We wanted to stay. So we started to fight for it. We tried everything and lost a lot. During the NP workouts, and soon other weekly workouts with some of the NP crew, I could be myself, but the other hours I had to be an adult. After a while a decision needed to be made. Lars didn’t had the chance to get a visa except we put a tremendous amount of money down and meanwhile I had to move out of my apartment and stayed with a friend. Without a job, no apartment and no Lars (back in Germany), there were four reasons to stay: weather, my clients, new friends I made and NP. At the end, we had to decide against Orlando and now try to rebuild our lives in Germany. This was the hardest decision I ever had to make. How a 5.45 to 7.15am Wednesday workout session can make an obvious choice so difficult is hard to understand. But if you ever get the chance to workout with such amazing people, then you know why you would try to stick around for just one more Wednesday. The NP Orlando crew gave me an unbelievable last week including food truck experience, running, NP workout and receiving the NP Positivity Award (Allison secretly hid an onion somewhere, because my eyes were a little watery), breakfast, cocktail bar, downtown escalation, family thanksgiving with Dave and Rosie Camous, and a last 6am swim, run and breakfast just 5 hours before my flight to Germany.

Lars and I cannot thank everyone enough for what you have done for us and especially for me. Lars always knew that I found people to go to when I was alone. I am so thankful for Allison and Travis who put their time and energy into NP Orlando and give so many different people 45 minutes to escape from whatever they are fearing or facing. Thank you!

Lars and I hope to welcome everyone one day to November Project… Germany 😉

A special thanks to: Rose (mom), Dave (most inappropriate jokes), Allison (crazy loveable person), Travis (boom – burpees), Nathan (fastest runner), Jose (FB German translator), Ray (swim instructor), Dick (unbelievable), Katie (socializing), Dyani (fittest person), Staci (runs every Disney marathon), Hung (knows every way to shorten runs), Dawn (is actually way younger), Andrea (my running partner), Kyle (run, swim repeat), Sandra (downtown 😉 ), Stephanie (sweetest person – ernie), Matt (Lars running partner), Regena (positive), Arron (funny), Patti (swimming), Nikki (Clermont run), Vlad (best FB comments), Michelle (runs Boston), Danielle (breakfast), Lynsey (lightning run), Mariana (has a secret sister in NP 😉 )
(Please forgive me if I accidently forgot someone.)

Danke,
Neele

 

We love you, Neele & Lars, more than you’ll ever know — as far as we are concerned, you’re always showing up with us, even if you only an ocean away.
We’ll keep cheering you on and look forward to visiting you and “November Project Germany” someday soon!

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