A Little Brighter…

Things have been a rough in our world this week. Last Sunday, our friend Kaitlan died while hiking in Hawaii.

You may remember we had a grand send-off for her last winter, as she graduated and had just started was applying to grad schools. Earlier this spring, she got accepted to an amazing program in Hawaii, and moved there over the summer. She was “living the dream.” There was no place more perfect for Kaitlan than Hawaii, and we constantly joked that we were living vicariously through her.

I’ve written so many thoughts here, but to put it simply, Kaitlan was incandescent. While the rest of us always seemed to get bogged down in life, she just seem to float above it all — like she wasn’t of this world. Nothing could ever slow her down…

On Tuesday, we held our own memorial, doing the WOD we did when she left us in January. Sunshine and Rainbows is quintessentially Kaitlan, filled with cartwheels and headstands and some thrusters to balance us being up side down turned around for most of it.

Sunshine and Rainbows WOD

4 Rounds (1 minute each station, Fight-Gone-Bad-style)

• Inverted Burpees
• Squat Clean Thrusters (115/75)
• Cartwheel Burpees
• Rest

To celebrate Kaitlan, we all wore our brightest gear — as Kaitlan was known for mismatched socks, tie-dye and colors that would nearly blind you on a sunny day.

Nate conducting the free introduction class. We couldn’t fathom cancelling it, so they did a scaled version of the WOD. It was amazing to watch people who’d never met Kaitlan do her WOD.

Kaitlan’s warm-ups and workouts always left you more than a little dizzy…

Scores were number of reps + our favorite memories of Kaitlan…

We then tried to assemble to get really bright photo…

And realized we forgot some people…

The final board for the day — I think I stared at it for no less than an hour…

It was good to share a WOD with Nate again, I don’t think I remember the last time we did. Definitely made the occasion all the more special, even if I can and will never be able to keep up with him.

I love these girls more than anything.

And of course the night devolved into pure silliness. It was perfect.

I am without words other than to say I miss her so much. I attempted to garden the other day to get away and burst into tears when the little girl across the street started practicing cartwheels and back-bends. I have playlists of songs we listened to in WODs, and I went through thousands of cell phone pictures trying to catch one that I might have missed with her in it. Right now the memories feel sad, but I know in time they will exist as nothing but the joy she brought to our lives. The greatest thing about what we endeavor to do isn’t how well we do it, but who we find and love along the journey.