30 Days Out: The Story of How I Got Here

Part I - South Georgia to Florida

Okay so I can't really believe I'm typing this, but I'm 30 days out from being a full time trainer.

Thirty days. That's kind of wild to me.

I've been quietly working toward this for three years now. Through all the doubt and the "maybe this is dumb" moments and the days I almost talked myself out of it. And somehow it's just... here now.

So to celebrate 30 days until EmBrazFit 2.0, I wanted to do something I've been meaning to do for a while. I'm gonna tell you the whole story of how I actually got here. Not the cute highlight version. The real one, that honestly took way longer than it probably should have.

And fair warning, it goes pretty far back. Like, college far back.

Here's how it's gonna go, one new part every Wednesday for the next four weeks:

• Part 1 - South GA to Florida (you're here)

• Part II - Florida to California

• Part III - California to Florida

• Part IV - Launch

So grab your coffee and let's get into it.

Let's go back to South GA, around 2015.

So at this point I'm at the University of Georgia working on my Agribusiness degree, fully convinced I had my whole life figured out. (I did not. Nobody does at 20. It's fine.)

Somewhere in there I joined the local YMCA and started dabbling in the women's only section. And I had no idea what I was doing. Like, none. I'd walk in, do the same 30 to 45 minutes of the same stuff, and walk right back out. No plan, no program, no clue.

But here's the part I actually want you to hear, because it's basically the whole reason I do what I do now.

I wasn't good. But I was consistent.

I didn't need to be impressive. I just needed to keep showing up. And I did.

Eventually I went from kind of wandering around the gym to actually taking classes, and I started adding in some strength work too. Around that same time I was starting to feel a little meh about the path I thought I was on, and then UGA offered me an assistantship for their MPPPM (Master of Plant Protection and Pest Management) program. So I took it.

And this is kind of where the fun started.

Enter the professor who got me into all of this.

My professor did CrossFit, and he kept telling me to try it. So eventually I did.

And yeah. That was it for me. Game over.

I drank the CrossFit kool aid and never looked back. I got into it fast, and I got into it deep. I wanted to actually be competitive, so I started going twice a day. I was losing weight, getting stronger, watching my body change in ways I'd never seen before. And for the first time, fitness wasn't this thing I had to drag myself to. It was just mine. It was the thing I was actually excited about.

I felt like I'd finally found something. I just didn't realize yet that finding it and knowing what to do with it are two very different things.

Then college ended, and a pretty magical door opened.

After I graduated, I got a job at Walt Disney World in the Horticulture department, which actually put my agriculture degrees to use. Sunshine, theme parks, a fresh start, the whole thing.

So I packed up my life and headed to Florida.

On paper it was kind of the dream. New job, new state, new everything.

But nobody really warns you about this part. Sometimes you get the exact thing you thought you wanted, and you still feel kind of lost.

I had the job. I had the new chapter. I had the fresh start.

So why did it feel like I'd just driven myself straight into the middle of nowhere?

That's where we'll pick it back up next Wednesday. Part II, Florida to California, and trust me, this is where the story actually gets good.

Following along with the road to EmBrazFit 2.0? New part every Wednesday for the next 4 weeks. Fill out the contact form on the website so you don't miss a drop!  Also - follow me on Insta for more updates - @embrazfit.