I’ve been going to the gym lately. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked out consistently, and I have no one to thank except Ryan McKean for my recent gym endeavors (more on Ryan at the end of this blog post). I’ve only been gym-ing for about two weeks, but I can see a little bit of progress. I think my veins are a little more visible, so maybe the doctor won’t have to wiggle the needle like a loose tooth to find them when drawing my blood now. I was at the gym a couple days ago and had a silly goose time so I’m just gonna talk about that in this here blog post. I know I don’t really talk about Fellows stuff in my blogs. Sorry.
Thursday, January 30th, 2025
I substitute taught all day at St. David’s School before I went to the gym. Some would say I taught math. I wouldn't say that. Ryan joined me at Planet Fitness, but we didn’t work out together. It’s always like that though, I’m just thankful to have someone to go with. I think Planet Fitness sent out personal invites to everyone near Capital Boulevard that day. It felt like there were about 120 people there (about 115 people too many). Thirty minutes in, I walked up to a vacant chest fly machine (that’s probably not the correct terminology). When I walk up to gym equipment, there’s a certain amount of fear that I’ll reach my destination at the same time as another gym-er, and that we’re then going to have to figure out which one of us is worthier than the other to use it first. That didn’t happen this time, but I did stumble upon someone’s hoodie and headphones hanging on the machine. I thought that could have possibly been someone’s gym-rat way of claiming this machine, and having now unlocked a new fear of using someone else’s claimed machine, I stood there looking around for about five minutes.
Truthfully I was just waiting to see if some 200 pound-of-pure-planet-fitness-muscle Final Boss would come to beat me to a pulp for trying to use “their” machine, but in my head, it looked like I was devising a plan to steal this machine. I was imagining every Planet Fitness employee was eying me down from every corner of the room, just itching to dial 911 as soon as I put my hands on it. At this point, my heart was racing at about 140 beats per minute before lifting a single weight, so I decided to sit down and just roll with the punches. Not much longer after that, a dapper young gentleman walked up and apologized for leaving his hoodie and headphones. I said that it was no problem, to which he responded with what I later determined was “I like your sweatshirt.” At the time, I didn’t hear what he said, so I replied with “sure man” and proceeded to workout while ruminating on how he probably thought I was a jerk for not saying thank you. Sorry hoodie headphones guy I think I may be hard of hearing.
Afterwards, I decided to use the thingy that you pull down and is supposed to workout your triceps? Sorry that’s the best explanation I can give you. Shortly into yanking some weights around, another gym goer walked up to me and said “hey man, I like your sweatshirt.” This was my redemption. The first time I fumbled heavily, but this was fate's way of letting me know that we all make mistakes and deserve a second chance sometimes. I looked at him, gave a little soft smile, and said “hey… thanks man” before turning back to my triceps thingy to finish my workout. Little did I know, an even greater fear than stealing someone’s claimed machine would soon come into play once he asked me…
“Where’d ya get it?”
Typically when I interact with strangers, I plan out far in advance exactly what I’m going to say and when I’m going to say it because I’m not the best social interactor. If I order food at a restaurant and the waiter says “I’m sorry we’re out of that”, there’s no telling what my response would be, so when this man – who I would eventually learn is named Mason – asked me this follow up question, not only did a wave of panic shower over me, but I also knew that I was going to be in for a long conversation that I didn’t sign up for.
He was actually pretty cool though. Mason went to Liberty University (except he didn’t know my friend Joel who also went to Liberty so where did you really go to school Mason), and currently attends Celebration church. I explained to him what the Fellows Program is to the best of my ability, and he countered by saying he’s currently doing the Bible-in-a-year reading plan. He eventually tried to offer me help with my fitness endeavors, telling me that he was a fitness consultant and had recently started a new business. He said if I needed anything to let him know, but then proceeded to not give me any contact information. Mason, I’m sorry but how in the world would I let you know? Thanks for liking my sweatshirt though. Thanks to you too hoodie headphones guy.
I felt pretty convicted about dreading this conversation with a stranger because it turned out to be a lovely interaction with another believer, and none of it would have happened if Ryan hadn’t encouraged me to go to the gym with him a couple weeks ago. This is a pretty elementary example, but it’s just one of the many ways Ryan has encouraged me to grow throughout the past five months. I can’t clearly articulate the ways that Ryan has helped me shift the way that I view myself, others, and my walk with Jesus, so I’m not going to try. Sorry.
But he’s the man, and I’m very thankful for him.
My song recommendation for this post is “Roll with the Punches” by Dawes, live from the rooftop version of course.
I hope everyone has had an electric start to 2025.
Love, Bailey