Sarah's Letter to Arena Ready
Dear Arena Ready,
Today is a pretty rough one for many in the AR community. A new president, a new party in power, and the potential for a substantial change in direction.
I grew up in an environment where no one I knew would dare voice support for Clinton as President. Here in San Francisco, I don’t know anyone who would publicly criticize President Obama, and I know very few people who would admit to voting for now President-elect Trump. It puts me in a very strange position - as someone who grew up in a Republican “flyover state” which has now apparently become a Democratic swing state, now living in and loving the most liberal city in America.
What I want to emphasize is that I believe one thing very fundamentally: independent of politics, all people deserve the opportunity to pursue their best selves along other people doing the same. We all have a right to be who we are: strong in some ways, weak in some ways, different in almost every way imaginable, except in our need to pursue our best self, and to be surrounded by people who believe we are good and can be better.
Arena Ready has become my utopia. I look around and see people of different religions, ethnicities, nationalities, professions, and ages. Some of us are men, others are women, and as such, some of us love men, and others love women. We are in different tax brackets. We even have different political beliefs. Yet, we all show up at the same place nearly every day, seeking the same things: betterment of self, friendship, health, to be less weak, and to be more strong.
Thank you for being a place we can all be ourselves. Thank you for seeing each others’ differences, and loving them for them and simultaneously despite of them. Thank you for sweating without being self conscious. Thank you for scaling and acknowledging your weakness when you know you can’t do Rx, and when you know Rx is too easy. Thank you for being willing to put yourselves out there and set the best, or the worst, time on the board.
I can’t help but think we’re onto something. I hope that our community can change the world just a little bit, and make the future less divided. Keep being your awesome selves out there, keep your chins up, and know that at the very least, no matter how things change in the future, you have so many people here that care about you, and want the very best for you.
I really hope it’ll all be ok, and I bet it will be - some of the people I really care about and trust from my early life thought the world would end during the Obama presidency, and things got better. Now, most of my friends think the world could end in a Trump presidency, things could still stand to get even better. Let’s hope the good sticks, and the worst is behind us. Hang in there. Support each other. Keep pursuing excellence.
-Sarah
WOD for 11-10-16:
Deadlift:
3x8
Across
-then-
A) Against a 6-Minute Clock:
800m Run, then AMRAP of...
30 AbMat Sit-ups
40 Double Unders
-Rest 2 Minutes-
B) Against a 5-Minute Clock:
600m Run, then AMRAP of...
30 Walking Lunges
40 Double Unders
-Rest 2 Minutes-
C) Against a 4-Minute Clock:
400m Run, then AMRAP of...
30 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft
40 Double Unders