Fall 2020 is a special time for me. Sure, I've written on my love for the fall, a delight that is only second to the Christmas season and the buildup to the new year. This fall season is especially welcomed as its the 20th anniversary of that tempestuous Fall 2000, where everything had to be broken down before it could be built better. It is also the 25th anniversary of the best shape I've ever been in my life, when I was a high school senior whom spent 150+ minutes a day M-F in wrestling practice. In January 1996, I left it behind to begin Taekwondo....and I do look forward to 1996's 25th. It is appropriate that I make my Facebook return this New Year's Eve.

None of it seems so long ago, yet there have been so many faces and so many places along the way.

"It's been a long road, getting from there to here." And while the years have been many and the stories have unfurled, I don't feel like anyone else but me. I've got scars and a propensity for particular injuries, but I'm no different than I was 20 or 25 years ago. I've crammed more trivia into my head along the way, but I remain me. I like that guy!

When it comes to adventure, there comes a moment of critical mass leading to its decision point: do I make the move or not? Do I remain in the shadows of safety of a world that I know and navigate well, or should I lay that on the line for something that will be different and hopefully better?

If life was like the movies, the answer would be obvious, right? The hero of the story wins big; sometimes the hero is sacrificed along the way, but it makes sense, and the greater is gained. People don't pay admission to movies where the hero takes that leap and...falls on his face—The End. In the real world, grandiose actions of going great distances doesn't get the girl like in Adventureland (or in basically every rom-com). Ben Stiller's protagonist in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty would have never left his computer's desktop in reality.

But, we champion those ideals, don't we? We long to bring that into our own worlds. We ache! In my own life, I've won some of them, yet lost more than I care to remember.

And it's best that I don't, because who wants that? It's like the father in Mark Wahlberg's Invincible, "You know, Vince, it might not be the worst thing to let this one go. A man can only take so much failure." Nobody wants to work from that place to flinch at life, stuck in a place where we are either unwilling or unable to move.

Life would be a bore if things just worked out all the time. We gotta have the pains, the setbacks, the failures, to raise our arms in victory as a champion.

We gotta step out.

After six days of daily workouts, I enter rest. Admittedly, I'm tempted to put another session in; I just feel good! Yet, there's no need to rush it: I've got six more days in the queue.

This week will feature the kickoff to The 16th Expedition. I look forward to Thursday's weigh-in though the results matter not. I've now reached a place in my fitness schema where I just want to move and be active. It's not a requirement or anything; far from it, it's a DELIGHT! This brings me hope, specifically that if I feel this way now, that Future Me's activity will be a greater extension of this.

At this point, the number on the scale is important in that it shows me the potential of greater success. I enjoy my workouts today; in the upcoming months, I'll be moving more adroitly. I long to return to those days of years ago, my '90s, when I'd take off running at night at this time of year and just didn't fatigue.

So much is lost to the past, but I believe that this thing can be recovered. It makes me smile.