Metamorphosis

One year ago at this time, I was preparing to start my final year of graduate school. I had a full caseload of courses and an ideal internship that I couldn’t wait to start. I still tried to make time to exercise, and typically found myself squeezing in half an hour in on the elliptical (while reading the latest issue of People Magazine).

Fast Forward to Today. I have a new job as a School Social Worker at a Charter School in Detroit. And, instead of a caseload of courses, I have a caseload of students. My days of combining reading and working out are long over, and I haven’t been on an elliptical (or even in that same gym) in months. In fact, I seldom use the term “work out.” Now, I WOD. With each WOD, I can feel every ounce of my body being pushed to the limit, and just when I thought I couldn’t go any further, I do. Strange, but I never had that feeling during my thirty minutes on the elliptical.

When I finished graduate school my sister gave me an awesome Life as RX shirt. On the back it said "Metamorphosis in 3 . . 2. . 1  . . Go!" She then made me a one of a kind Fashletics necklace to match. Today, I began to think about my own Metamorphosis. All year I have been waiting for some big change, something to show that I am a different person than the one I was a year ago. For a brief period I considered dying my usually bright blonde hair to dark brown, as a way of saying: “See?! I’ve changed!” And then I realized, maybe I had the wrong idea about change. I don’t have to be someone different. In fact, I am still the same person, with the same goals and values. But instead of sitting behind a desk studying textbooks, I will be sitting behind a desk using “textbook skills” as I work with students. I am still that same person focused on exercising and staying healthy. I just figured out that the elliptical is not the best answer . . . it’s Crossfit.  

So for me, my metamorphosis isn’t that I have changed into something different, just something better. I am still the same person I was a year ago. Except today, I am the better and stronger version. And, I don’t need a new hair color to tell me that.