Friday, November 9, 2012

My own Hero's Journey! GO RUCK.

Go Ruck. It’s hard to put into words what we all went through- even for me, Ms. Chatterbox. However, it IS easy to fit it into the Hero’s Journey chart and made a GREAT lesson plan for The Odyssey Unit at school. So…here it goes!
Call To Adventure~Invites the initiate into the adventure, offers the opportunity to face the unknown and gain something of physical or spiritual value
A few months ago my friend Sagi had asked me if I every wanted to do Go Ruck. I asked what it was and then responded “maybe.” A few months after that Katie said she was asked to do it and was considering it. At this point, I decided my answer was YES. I emailed Sagi and committed to doing it.
Refusal of the Call~Often when the call is given, the hero temporarily refuses to heed it.
After I committed to do this, I started regretting it. I began to worry it was too much money, or too close to my camping trip and would interfere with my Crossfit training too much.... worried about the end of the trimester with school and too much grading..…but I realized that this was THE time to do it because I WAS scared. So I paid my money and got the confirmation email.
Threshold~The “jumping off point” for the adventure
1am. Venice Beach Fishing Pier. Anton and Mike stuck around for a little while watching us get wet and miserable doing bear crawls in the ocean…but Mike left…then shortly afterwards so did Anton…then shit got real.
Challenges~Situations that put the initiate at risk, emotionally and physically, forcing him to change and grow. Strike the initiate’s greatest weakness, poorest skill, shakiest knowledge, most vulnerable emotions.
Katie and I were chosen to lead the group early on. I was scared shitless! They took us out of the line and I had NO idea why because we weren't in a routine OR working as a team just yet. While Katie was the one that really took charge and got into her awesome coach mode with organizing movement of the huge log, I still had responsibilities and had to get rid of fears and weaknesses to help Katie lead the group.
Revelation~A sudden, dramatic change in the way the initiate thinks or views life; an insight or discovery about himself or life
Once the sun came up and we were done with the log, I thought everything would get better....but....it got worse as I realized we had hours left to go... so I had to change my mindset to get through the journey ahead.
Abyss~The greatest challenge of the journey.
For me, this was the last few miles. Everything hurt. So much pain. I hated all the people looking at us on Venice Beach. Just when I thought we were almost done, the cadre made us run through the sand to the ocean. This is when I cried.
Transformation~A moment of death and rebirth, a part of the initiate dies so that a new part, the hero, can be born
Shortly after this moment and also feeling like I was going to drown in the ocean, the cadre yelled at us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and keep our chins up…so I got it together and kept my chin up for the last mile.
Atonement~The hero is “at one’ with his new self and life; the changes caused by the journey are at an end, and the hero is content with who he has be come
I was damn proud to get that GO RUCK patch 12.5 hours later, even if it was just after I got done crying….
Return~The hero returns to the known and his everyday life with a boon bestowed upon him based on his new level of skill and awareness.
Well, this about sums it up. Going to work on Monday was a strange feeling. I talked to a few other friends while they were at work and they ended up telling their co-workers that they slept all weekend because it was too hard to explain what the hell we just did. One thing was for sure though- we sure FELT different! Cheers to Troop 307!