Hi! This is my first ever blogging experience, so y’all will have to forgive my ineptitude. (Note: I used ineptitude, a big word, because I took the SAT this past Saturday and I’m still stuffed with vocabulary.)
It’s been a big week for our team! First, we spent our Sunday morning together on an extremely repetitive ride. You may be wondering what exactly constitutes “an extremely repetitive ride”, so I’ll fill you in. It involved 8 fairly sleepy teenagers, a parking lot, colorful cones, and a box of delicious little muffins. Essentially, we spent 3 hours biking in circles. Our fearless leader, Mr. Bill Whitcher, guided us through quite a few biking agility exercises. We learned the rules of the road and we practiced quick braking, u-turns, hand signaling, “looking where you want to go”, and lots of other things. Some of the members of the team took to the exercises like fish to water, but I found them to be a bit daunting. Thankfully, we all seemed to be fully intact afterwards. (I do have a mysterious bruise on my leg, though…) This success was probably due, in part, to the delicious little muffins mentioned above. (Shout out to Jacob’s mom, Karen. I’m doing my best to stop calling you ma’am just like you’ve asked.)
Our second big event of the week was on Tuesday morning. We’d been hoping for a long time that we would be able to have someone from Ride 2 Recovery come and speak to our school during morning chapel. I’m happy to report that Mr. Scott Wells was able to come and visit St. Paul’s on Tuesday morning to do just that! We got to have breakfast with him beforehand, in our lovely dining hall, and got some inside scoop on his work with Ride 2 Recovery. Mr. Wells gave a fantastic reflection in chapel. He didn’t bring up prepared notes or anything, and I actually think that made him seem much more “real” and not stiff or rehearsed. He spoke to us about his experience with PTSD and how he has been able to bond with other veterans through his time with Ride 2 Recovery. He’s even working on a R2R group right here in New Hampshire! All in all, I think his chapel reflection was a great opportunity for him to share part of his journey with our community and for our team to show off the amazing cause that we’re working to support.
The weather here in Concord is getting nicer each day as we get closer and closer to our trip. The sunshine that we’ve been dearly missing is finally, finally coming back and the plant in my terrarium is thriving. (Yes, I do keep a terrarium in my room. Maybe y’all will get lucky and I’ll include a picture next time. It’s my pride and joy.) Get excited for many more blog posts (and hopefully delicious muffins?) to come!
xoxo
Mary Elmore
It’s been a big week for our team! First, we spent our Sunday morning together on an extremely repetitive ride. You may be wondering what exactly constitutes “an extremely repetitive ride”, so I’ll fill you in. It involved 8 fairly sleepy teenagers, a parking lot, colorful cones, and a box of delicious little muffins. Essentially, we spent 3 hours biking in circles. Our fearless leader, Mr. Bill Whitcher, guided us through quite a few biking agility exercises. We learned the rules of the road and we practiced quick braking, u-turns, hand signaling, “looking where you want to go”, and lots of other things. Some of the members of the team took to the exercises like fish to water, but I found them to be a bit daunting. Thankfully, we all seemed to be fully intact afterwards. (I do have a mysterious bruise on my leg, though…) This success was probably due, in part, to the delicious little muffins mentioned above. (Shout out to Jacob’s mom, Karen. I’m doing my best to stop calling you ma’am just like you’ve asked.)
Our second big event of the week was on Tuesday morning. We’d been hoping for a long time that we would be able to have someone from Ride 2 Recovery come and speak to our school during morning chapel. I’m happy to report that Mr. Scott Wells was able to come and visit St. Paul’s on Tuesday morning to do just that! We got to have breakfast with him beforehand, in our lovely dining hall, and got some inside scoop on his work with Ride 2 Recovery. Mr. Wells gave a fantastic reflection in chapel. He didn’t bring up prepared notes or anything, and I actually think that made him seem much more “real” and not stiff or rehearsed. He spoke to us about his experience with PTSD and how he has been able to bond with other veterans through his time with Ride 2 Recovery. He’s even working on a R2R group right here in New Hampshire! All in all, I think his chapel reflection was a great opportunity for him to share part of his journey with our community and for our team to show off the amazing cause that we’re working to support.
The weather here in Concord is getting nicer each day as we get closer and closer to our trip. The sunshine that we’ve been dearly missing is finally, finally coming back and the plant in my terrarium is thriving. (Yes, I do keep a terrarium in my room. Maybe y’all will get lucky and I’ll include a picture next time. It’s my pride and joy.) Get excited for many more blog posts (and hopefully delicious muffins?) to come!
xoxo
Mary Elmore