But then, one day it happens: you walk into the box and the familiar feeling isn't there. New faces erupt around you, and you all of a sudden feel like the stranger. The box that once felt like yours, doesn't seem to welcome you with open arms anymore. The open arms are ones of strangers you have never met. Each of you seek to find community at the box, but you with those you once knew and them with anyone who will venture to offer an introduction. It may have snuck up on you gradually or maybe it started after a short time away from the box. But regardless of how it happened, the unsettling feeling of your veteran status being uprooted by new faces has zapped you of your normal enthusiasm to get in a WOD.
Every month, new athletes graduate from the 101 Class and make their way enthusiastically into the Group WODs. With every group of new athletes, the dynamic of the community changes and with that comes the need for the veteran to be willing to change with it. Without the desire to change with the ever changing landscape of the CrossFit community, you will quickly turn into the stranger at your box. This ability to change means stepping outside your comfort zone to genuinely have interest in meeting new athletes that share the same desire for health and fitness that you do. If you haven't already figured it out, CrossFit not only challenges you physically but will also challenge you emotionally and mentally. You will be challenged to push your limits in more ways than one, and as the veteran that limit may be putting aside your comfortable conversations to engage in unknown conversations with new faces.
If you are feeling like a stranger at your box, then my challenge to you as the veteran athlete is to walk past the familiar faces and bee line it to the new athletes with a genuine interest to know more than their name. You should make it your goal to find out at least one thing about that person above and beyond their first name. Your experience and success stories as a veteran athlete are so valuable for encouraging and motivating new athletes who are just beginning. Your story may be just the one they need to find the courage to continue, so next time you are at the box, look past your fellow veteran athletes to find new members to connect with. I guarantee that the more time you spend conversing with recent 101 graduates and unfamiliar faces, the more they will respect you as a veteran, and you will start to feel less like a stranger and more like a role model.
If you are feeling like a stranger at your box, then my challenge to you as the veteran athlete is to walk past the familiar faces and bee line it to the new athletes with a genuine interest to know more than their name. You should make it your goal to find out at least one thing about that person above and beyond their first name. Your experience and success stories as a veteran athlete are so valuable for encouraging and motivating new athletes who are just beginning. Your story may be just the one they need to find the courage to continue, so next time you are at the box, look past your fellow veteran athletes to find new members to connect with. I guarantee that the more time you spend conversing with recent 101 graduates and unfamiliar faces, the more they will respect you as a veteran, and you will start to feel less like a stranger and more like a role model.
