If ever there was a day that talked to the THPL lifestyle and mission then that day would be participating in a Tough Mudder race. Today I had the pleasure of spending 4.5 hours with six PennFoster teammates at the New England Tough Mudder, at Mt. Snow Vermont, crawling through the mud, over, around and under obstacles and subjecting ourselves to electric shocks, freezing water and 11 miles of hiking up and down the mountain. And we did this with about 8,000 other similarly motivated teams and individuals. All there to see how much “soul” they had. Were we capable of enduring the cramps, scrapes, bruises and challenges? This is what we went to find out.

Along the way we found out that this is indeed is not a race but a happening. It is an opportunity to dig deep and push hard – hard enough to make it to the end but only with a big effort. To help others get to the top – to encourage your new found friends “stuck in the mud” literally and to press forward in spite of the cold, the wet, the pain to get to the end of the journey and to find out that you had advanced your cause for Life, Learning and Fitness because your version of THPL does not include sitting on a couch on a Saturday afternoon.

I must say that I am impressed and amazed at how many people (mudders) participated in this event. To get there required an investment of time and money but more importantly required a commitment to succeed (and fail if necessary). Yes, there were trying times, but it was worth it as everyone who pushed forward to the end found something new in themselves and the rest of our community.

And so, maybe, just maybe, THPL can be more than just a niche community of hard drivers and over achievers. Maybe it can evolve over time to really include people who want to play THPL sometimes. And maybe events like the Tough Mudder can be an on-ramp to a new way of life focused on the elements of THPL. Let’s work to make it our goal and to get it to happen.

Loving life especially now that I finished the Tough Mudder

Ciao

Joe