Breakthrough members who were with us a year ago will undoubtedly remember the craziness we went through last summer. For those who weren’t with us then, the quick recap is that the Saturday before Father’s Day, the beauty school above us had a massive issue in their plumbing that caused our entire training studio to be flooded. We had to move out of our gym until mid-September, and spent our summer in a small dance studio across the parking lot.
We’ve officially made it past the year anniversary of the “Great Flood of 2023”, and the combination of photo/social media reminders, mixed with personal memories has been bringing back a lot of feelings about everything we were going through during that time. From the moment we walked into the gym that Father’s Day morning and saw the damage, we were determined to come back stronger and make the best of the situation. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a pretty tough time in our lives.
The month prior to the flood, Caleb had undergone a major surgery to repair torn ligaments in his wrist, and his father had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. We certainly felt like we had enough on our plates when we were forced to deal with another unexpected disaster that disrupted our business. As the summer went on, we felt more and more uncertain if we were going to be able to move back into our gym space, as negotiations with insurance companies and legal teams were not going well. And in August, Caleb’s father passed away after a few months of battling cancer.
Looking back now, I realize there are still quite a few things that affect me from last summer. It was really hard not to feel like every email, phone call, or text was going to be more bad news. It was hard not to feel constantly on edge, waiting for the next shoe to drop. And if you give in to those feelings, it’s not long before you start wallowing in self-pity at how unfair everything is, seeing yourself as a victim powerless to change your own circumstances.
Fortunately we had a lot of support from many different circles. We kept putting one foot in front of the other, and trusted that would be enough for the moment.
A few weeks ago, Caleb and I were taking our afternoon walk and talking about the events of last year, when we hit upon a thought: If something terrible, unexpected, and unfair can happen when you least expect it, so can something amazing! It’s so simple and brilliant, it could easily be overlooked. And when we are in the midst of stressful situations (hello, pandemic!) it’s pretty tough to feel like something awesome could be on its way.
When this thought occurred to us, we were easily able to think of quite a few unexpected things that have been big positives in our lives: opportunities we weren’t necessarily looking for that came our way, chance meetings, lucky breaks… When you start to notice the big things, you realize that everyday is filled with small ones too, from looking up at the sky at just the right moment to see a shooting star, to a sudden upgrade to first class, to a parking spot appearing.
You can never really predict what each day will bring, and when you think you have it figured out is usually when something comes from out of the blue. We will all face our share of unexpected challenges, tragedies, and traumas. But in the same way that something negative could surprise you when you least expect it, so could something wonderful beyond your imagination. And we feel truly blessed that we get to see and celebrate so many of those things in our gym community!
Here’s to an awesome summer ahead!