REB3L BROUGHT ME BACK TO ME

I still remember it like it was yesterday…It was August 5th 2016 I was in a public restroom in the Las Vegas airport.  I had just hung up the phone and turned to look at myself in the bathroom mirror.  The reflection I saw was totally unrecognizable, not only because of the mascara running down my face from my uncontrollable crying or the 40lbs I had gained over the years but because I was gone.  There was no light in my eyes, no laughter left, no spark in my soul.

That was the day that my husband lost his job with a major airline due to his alcohol addiction.  I didn’t completely lose my light that day but it was the years leading up to it and the years that would follow that dimmed my light even further.  I did know in that moment that I was in for a rough road ahead.  A road that was full of anger, hate, and sadness.  My focus would be on helping my husband get healthy, getting him into treatment, trying desperately to save what little of a marriage we had left, living on one income, moving away from my parents, and tending to the needs of my two little boys.  The past few years have been quite the journey, to put it mildly but I am so proud to say that my husband is coming up on 4 years of sobriety, our marriage is stronger than ever, my career is thriving, and my two little boys…well they’re little boys what can I say.  But the unrecognizable reflection was still there and it was time to bring me back!!

I decided to get back into the gym after 8 years of being out.  On this particular day I was on the elliptical at Trufit, my legs were burning, I was completely out of breath, I was hating that I was there, and I had only been going for 10 mins!  I then heard loud club music coming from the group fitness room and thought, how rude!!  Don’t they know this is a gym not a club!!!  As the group class ended I couldn’t help but noticed all the sweaty women coming out, laughing, hugging, and taking pictures with each other.  Happiness and joy?!  Two things I needed and didn’t make sense to me to find at the gym.  So after a few more days on the elliptical and witnessing the fun being had by others I had to know what the class was.  I asked the front desk and they said, “Oh, those are the Reb3ls!”  “The Who’s?!” I said. “The class is called Reb3l, it’s really fun,” they said.  “Fun??!!”

The next week I found myself standing in the back of a Reb3l class, the lights were off, the music was loud, I went left when the class went right, I jumped up while the class did squats!  My head was spinning, I was sweating like crazy and I was NOT having fun!!!  But what my first Reb3l class did do for me was help me forget the outside world and I liked that.  For that one hour I didn’t worry about homework, making dinner, cleaning the house, bath time, or wondering if today would be the day that my husband might relapse.  So I went back, I went back A LOT!!  I have not only moved up to the front row but I’ve moved into pictures with sweaty women that mean more to me than they could ever know.