My Story: 7 Strangers at the Gym

I whipped into the YMCA parking lot at 4:45 am—15 minutes before they opened—but just in time to bolt to my favorite Stair Master (the 2nd one from the door). It went the fastest.
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Getting out of my car, I popped my trunk and chose a few Oxygen magazines from my stack of 20-30 I read over and over and over again to pass my time on the machine.
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As I was rummaging, a voice came up behind me: “Goodmorning Lauryn…” to which I whipped my head around and saw not one…but 7 other individuals who walked up and circled around me.
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7 other gym-goers, about my parents’ age—people that I smiled at most mornings in the gym.
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Louise stepped forward. “Lauryn, we’re worried about you…we’ve been watching you over the past year…and it doesn’t seem like you’re well…”
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To which another spoke up, “You work so hard in the gym! And it’s so inspiring—I don’t think anyone works as hard as you—but it seems that over the past few months in particular, you’ve been looking more gaunt..”
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To which another said, “We just don’t know what we would do if we saw you collapse on that Stair Master…we care about you!”
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Andy said, “Lauryn, buddy, we want to help you…can we go to the hospital with you and make sure everything is ok? We want to help…”
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To which I clenched my jaw and my keys HARD at that word (hospital). I KNEW what that meant. And even though these 7 “strangers”—7 other gym goers did not know my history…they KNEW I was not the most thriving version of me—TRUE LAURYN!
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Something in the back of my mind whispered, “Lauryn…I want to help you…” And I could NOT help but think of the prayer I had prayed that morning on my way to the gym… “God help me make a change!”
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And I surrendered. I was exhausted. I told myself I was fine…and I could workout extra harder that night…it would all be FINE…NOTHING CRAZY had happened…
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I got in the car with these 7 strangers (and 1 at the front entrance—who was guarding it so I would not escape 🙂 )…and we drove to Vanderbilt–and they took this picture
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They said, one day, I wouldn’t want to forget it…