CrossFit Athletic Group

I guess we can start with the post title: Where are you now?

Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Still working for Henkel as a resident nerd, and tutoring on evenings and weekends. I bought a house in December next to the woods and behind a farm, so I'm right at home!

How do you answer the inevitable, "Why would you want to live in winter all year?" question?

It's true, the winter is a little longer and colder here, but I like cross country skiing and snowshoeing. And ice skating outside basically anywhere. I don't know if you know this but there are a lot of lakes around here. Plus Champy and Zebo look ridiculously cute in their little winter onesies. The vibe around here reminds me of Northern Michigan or the Rochester Stoney Creek area: very laid back and picturesque with a ton of trails to explore. It is a really beautiful place even with a couple feet of snow.

Is there something you took for granted about Michigan that you didn't know until now? What are some of the major differences you're adjusting to?

The short and cliched answer: I took everything for granted, the good and the bad. The good things I miss are of course being close to family, and having a sense of community. Most of my friends in Michigan I've known for years, so moving to a new place and having to start from scratch in the social department was a little daunting. On the flip side, I think I was taking myself for granted and limiting myself by just kind of accepting everything in my life as fixed. I had to force myself out of my comfort zone, but I learned a lot of things and now appreciate a lot of things about myself that I never saw before.

I think the biggest thing has been finding a community to belong to. Obviously the gym was that for me for a long time, and I've been trying to find something similar since. Luckily, they have apps for finding friends now? So I found some people to play sports with, and my coworkers are all really nice too.

Are there any sweeping generalizations you've noticed about Minnesota people? Or Minnesota in general?

I've heard of people being "Minnesota Nice," but I think people here are the same as anywhere. There's a ton of diversity since we're close to the Twin Cities and several large Universities bringing college age people from all over the US and the world.

How are Champion and Zebo doing? Have they gotten loose at all or caused any havoc?

Champy and Zebo are crazy as ever. They have gotten loose on exactly 3 occasions, all of which caused major heart palpitations but in the end they were OK. Since I don't have a yard for them yet, I've been walking them 2-4 times a day every single day since September. They're getting used to their new routine, but now that the weather's nice we are very excited to put a fence up and spend our afternoons in the backyard.

What's now and what's next?

Priority number one is building the fence! After that, we'll see. I've learned over the past year that you can plan and set goals but ultimately you can't predict the future, and the good and bad thing about life is that nothing is permanent. I want to focus on enjoying what I have now while finding my Ikigai. The common thread in all of the work that I enjoy and find value in is building relationships with people, especially young people. So I'll probably explore more ways to do that.

I hope everyone in the Champions Club family is doing well, and when I'm back in town I look forward to saying hi and catching up! Plus I'd love to hear from you, if you need my contact info just ask Chris for it. Cheers y'all!

October 2020... also that's Chase using a 15-lb. bar