A good night’s sleep in a big, soft, cozy, warm bed was just what we needed for our tired, worn-out bodies. My toes were pretty painful and I was going to lose 5 of my toenails from my shoe mishap. But other than that, we all felt pretty good and the next day we met for breakfast and then headed to the local museum and gift shop for some touristy fun. This was a very nice museum with art, furniture, jewelry, and fun gifts to take home. We shopped to our hearts’ delight finding fun things to take home to our loved ones to tell them about doing hard things on our Journey to Extraordinary Kilimanjaro.
Journey to Extraordinary Kilimanjaro … and Beyond!
Ellie McKenzie • December 16, 2024
Day 9 of my Kilimanjaro adventure – headed back to the airport.
Tanzania
Heading home, we returned to that third-world city, Arusha, where many of our tour guides grew up. We saw what life in Africa looked like for the average person. People were outside on the streets talking to each other and they had their farm animals with them walking down the street with nothing to keep them in line. Cows, goats, and chickens roamed freely at the stores where people shopped. As far as I could tell, no one had a phone on them. It was poor by our American standards, but it appeared amazingly happy, with people smiling ear to ear everywhere we went. Tanzania is, after all, considered one of the happiest places on Earth.
Doing Hard Things Makes You Happy
At one point on our trip, I was talking to our guides and I asked them about living in Africa and Tanzania and living a life that was so incredibly physically difficult, literally climbing one of the biggest mountains on Earth again and again, day after day. Athumani, our Team Kilimanjaro leader, told me every day he wakes up grateful to be able to do this. It is hard, but their bodies get used to it, and they get to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and camaraderie and help people from all over the world reach their dreams. What a gift!
I found this amazing – especially when you consider the depression and suicide rates in America skyrocketing year after year. And worse, our lives are so much easier and we have so much more to be grateful for in America – where are we going wrong?
The Comfort Crisis
This brings me back to Michael Easter’s book, The Comfort Crisis. Easter writes specifically about how hard things bring us joy. Our current lives in America are so comfortable with our 72-degree homes, a soft couch, and readily available food, that we are the fattest, laziest, and unhappiest we have ever been before.
On Kilimanjaro, we experienced many things Easter writes about in his book, many of which I have mentioned in these blogs. Things like solitude, boredom, quiet, nature, lack of food (or hunger due to the inability to eat), exercise (specifically walking and rucking), and recognizing death (specifically thinking about my dad) all happened on this trip. Many of these things I had never experienced like this before. Sure, I have experienced boredom and quiet – but not like this. My boredom in America usually leads me to a game on my phone. There was no phone use on this trip. Here I was forced to listen to the silence and the conversations in my head and notice the landscape and the wonderful people around me.
Journey to Extraordinary
That brings me to our “Journey to Extraordinary”.
John and I have discussed this many times over the years. Is Journey a noun or a verb? What does Journey to Extraordinary look like to us here at CrossFit Odyssey? How does CrossFit and fitness fit into this adventure?
For that, I have to go back to 2013 when we began this journey. I was newly divorced and trying to figure out my life again and I decided to compete in the 2013 CrossFit Open. The workout was 150 Wallballs, 90 Double Unders (with a jump rope), and 30 Muscle-Ups. About halfway through the wallballs I got really upset. I HATE wallballs. WHY was I doing this? I needed to focus on my kids and finding a job and I was so alone and confused, but I NEEDED this workout. I needed to know that I can do hard things.
And I did. And with that workout I took home the knowledge that when I get a big electric bill that looks scary, I will handle it. When my kids are in trouble, I will handle it. When it comes to finding a life partner – it will happen or it won’t, but I will be fine. I will create a beautiful life for myself and I will climb mountains and take on the world – and I will help others do the same.
That is what we mean by Journey to Extraordinary here at CrossFit Odyssey. We want to remember that it is the Journey, not the destination. We want to make friends, be healthy, and look good and feel good, and we want to have a long life doing all of the amazing things we want to be able to do – because we can!
New Adventures to Come
As my airplane flew into Dallas/Ft. Worth I looked out the window at the clouds below me and remembered that just a few days ago I was above those clouds on a mountain on the other side of the world. I’m not sure what new adventures and hardships will come my way in the next year or more. I have a few ideas up my sleeve. But whatever it is, I know that I can handle it because it is part of my Journey to Extraordinary.
If you are interested in joining us here at CrossFit Odyssey living our best lives being healthy enough to do anything we want to do – and DOING those things, click here for a Free Fitness Assessment and we will get you started on YOUR Journey to Extraordinary.
