I hope it’s no surprise that we missed you. A lot.
Yes, NP Summit was in sunny and beautiful San Diego. But what’s that compared to the badassery of the season we are now fully into (did you see that snow this afternoon?!).
A small thought on NP Summit….
The collective energy, friendship and love that existed at Mission Beach over the past couple of days was incredible. I don’t think I’ve had that much fun since…. well, I’m not sure when. THAT kind of fun is a very specific kind.
The whole time I was there, I had this question at the front of my mind….
Why didn’t I go to NP Summit before?
I’ve been chewing on this question for a few days now. Maybe you recall I wrote this post a while back. It definitely has something to do with the feelings and experiences I shared in that post.
But I want to update my thinking a bit since I wrote that post. My thinking has evolved. I’ve evolved.
Why didn’t I take the opportunity to go to NP Summit in the past?
I very clearly remember our friend Christine asking me in previous years. I very clearly remember our friend Sonya asking me during Run Collective. I very clearly remember our friend Rachel asking me too.
I usually responded with a cool “maybe next year”.
I didn’t know what they knew.
That NP Summit is f*cking awesome.
But now I know that.
Since becoming a co-leader with our awesome NP Canada community, I see things differently. It wasn’t too much of a stretch for me to imagine myself at Meeting of the Minds (MOM) + NP Summit this year. After all, I AM a co-leader and I SHOULD be there learning, cheering, sweating, making friends, etc.
Friends, what it comes down to is this.
I limited myself from the incredible opportunity of attending and fully participating in NP Summit.
SIDEBAR – It’s funny that I limited myself since I actually wasn’t raised that way. I – very luckily – had extremely progressive brown parents who made sure that past cultural limitations, that they dealt with, didn’t land on my shoulders. Saying you can’t do something or shouldn’t do something wasn’t really in my world. I know that seems normal to many of you but to me it isn’t lost on me that thinking, acting, and doing things in a way that has no limits is kind of a big deal. More on that another time…
OK, SIDEBAR OVER- I thought I’d feel left out. I thought I wouldn’t really meet anyone. I thought this was something for fancy fitness people. I thought there would be no other brown people.
And TBH, I’m kind of a effing idiot for any of these previous thoughts.
NONE of those things happened. In fact, the exact opposite happened. Everyone wanted to say hi, spend time together, hear what I had to say, sweat together, jump in the water together, build sandcastles (and then laugh at the judging process), eat burritos together, learn what city my tag is from, comment on how cold Canada is, learn about the mysterious -30C badge, and like a million other things too.
I should have turned my own bias on its head long ago. I prevented myself from having years and years of fun at NP Summit.
If you feel this way even a little bit, for whatever the reason is, I challenge you to drop your preconceived biases and just take a leap of faith. Not just with NP but I bet this lesson translates to many parts of all of our lives.
There’s no need to hold ourselves back from fun, our own greatness, a cool experience, learning something awesome, or more.
My lesson (at this age… gawd) is to not limit my own opportunities. I met lots of interesting, cool, quality people by just being open to something new.
To our mighty crew this morning, I hope you felt the beginning of some new Summit energy from Rob and I. We learned A LOT! We can’t wait to inject that into our thriving NP Canada community!
Finally, to your babysitters – Tracey, Zoe, Jan, Andi, Eric, and Ryan – thank you for stepping up to lead. I hope that was a fun experience. As we said to each of you, the downside of you leading is that Rob and I didn’t get to participate in how YOU lead.
I thought I’d leave this post with a hype video. The bounce. At Summit. You’re welcome.
Announcements
- This might be a rumour or it might not be…. you may want to start carrying exactly $5 in your pocket. #freethebuffs
- Wednesday at 5:58am – we’ll see you at the FUN-icular stairs.
~togetherisbetter (each time I write this, I love it even more),
Lazina
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