by Coach Leslie
We are three days into our 4th annual Honor Week. Our veteran community was just 4 strong in 2014. It has grown to 8 in 2021 with five of those veterans being Marines. One of the most significant challenges a veteran faces is the transition out of the military into civilian life. While we're in the military we are surrounded by people who share an experience. We are united by the mission. We speak a common language. We find humor in the morbid. We survive awful conditions through irreverence. When we get out we often feel adrift. One of the ways that we bond and develop trust in the military is through physical fitness. It's the most basic method to measure up a teammate. Can they carry the load? Can they do the work? Can they hack the hard shit? If they can't we know with certainty that we can't trust them. They will be a non-hacker when it matters most. If they can, they will have our trust. Even if we don't like each other, we will work together to get the hard shit done. This kind of bond is almost non-existent outside of the military. No where else in my life since getting out have I ever had to earn someone's trust by doing hard physical things. Likewise, I struggled to learn how to trust folks because I didn't have a metric that I could use. I didn't have an instant community of people who knew how to do hard things. I floundered and wondered for years how I would ever find a group of folks with whom I could bond through a shared intense experience. ENTER CROSSFIT My first CrossFit class, in March of 2010, kicked my ass in a way it hadn't been kicked since the Marine Corps. I looked around and saw all kind of folks leaning into hard work. I saw men and women finishing a hard workout in a pool of sweat on the floor. Then I saw them get up and ask for more. I finally found my people. This shared intense experience was so powerful to me it's one of the reasons I opened True Spirit CrossFit. While it's a great place for you and your friends and family to get healthy. It's the place where I learned how to trust in people again. It's the place that after being out of the Marine Corps for over 20 years I have finally created a community of veterans that I actually WANT to hang out with. I'm so happy to know all of you. I am so grateful for the Navy, Army and Air Force veterans who make our gym so fun. I'm especially happy to have "my Marines." Thanks for helping my learn how to be a better human.
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