Guest blog: The Bex Factor
Hey, Local Laundry fam! We have a very special guest blog for today from our friend Becky from Red Deer. Becky partnered with us to show off how she wore her YQF gear and creates impact within her community and city of Alberta's own Red Deer! Keep scrolling to find out more about Becky, how she builds community and her story. Scroll, read and enjoy.
Let's dive into it!
The biggest thing I want to achieve in life is to make a difference.
When I was a teenager, I wrote myself a bucket list of things I'd like to accomplish. Buy a house, own a dog, travel to Japan and make a difference in someone's life were just a couple examples of things on that list. I was never sure what I could do or how I could make a difference for something or someone, but I figured I had my whole life ahead of me to figure it out.
I began writing my personal blog as sort of an online journal in my teens. I loved to write and I had a web-savvy mom who helped set it up. It was just an outlet for me to express myself through writing without ever a thought of it turning into anything. At the time I was also combining my love of writing with my love of music, doing music and concert reviews for various print and online publications. Along the way, I learned that blogging was a thing and there was a whole world out there of people sharing their journeys through blogs. I began to share more about my health and fitness journey from running to Crossfit to obstacle course racing and everything in between. Fitness was a super big part of my life at that point and remains so today. That began to connect with me with people in my community and beyond. I actually have a huge friend group throughout the province that I've made just through the blogging community. When I became pregnant with my son Liam in 2012, I naturally started to include more family life and the blog evolved again. I've always strived to keep my blog real and personal, sharing triumphs and struggles with full honesty. Throughout the last decade of writing, I've had people email me saying I inspired them to complete that obstacle race while pregnant as I had done (twice!), or to say thank you for making them feel like they weren't alone in their parenting struggles. It wasn't ever something I set out to do, to build a community and bring people together, it just sort of happened.
Over time people started to come to me for recommendations on where to eat, where to workout, or what's happening in the community. I love my city and all that it has to offer so naturally I share some of that on my blog too. In 2016 I started a whole series on the blog reviewing every single gym and fitness facility in the city. As we finally start to wrap that up, I've been asked if I'll start reviewing restaurants too (in hindsight, I should have started with that and ended with the gyms). I've met so many amazing people in this community and have worked with the best business owners here. I love when I share a new business that's opened and hearing, "I had no idea this place existed, thanks for sharing". I love helping connect the community through my blog and social media.
I've recently started creating my own community through Pound Fitness. I registered to become an instructor on a whim, after only taking a handful of classes myself. It's a fitness class that combines my love of music and my unrealistic dream of being a badass drummer while working up a good sweat so there's no doubt this class was made just for me. Teaching has helped me step out of my normally quiet and reserved ways to really let loose in class. After just a couple short months of teaching, I have been selling out every class with regulars who show up every time. It's amazing to see people let go of their fears of not being good enough or being too uncoordinated and just rocking out and letting their inner rock star shine. I think in a society where mental health problems are on the rise, it's good to have a physical outlet to help them relieve some stress and get a good endorphin hit.
To me, a community is all about creating a place of support, love, and respect. Whether I'm connecting locals to cool businesses, helping someone find their inner rock star in Pound Fitness classes or finding the right gym or fitness class for them in the city, I hope that I can continue to build a community where people feel that support and help someone connect to something new in some way.
