“It” Gets Easier

Good morning. Good morning. Cadre family. It's Luke Wendtland. Here we are just outside, probably the biggest tongue twister of a city of all time. Murfreesboro. Murfreesboro. Gotta love that one. Murfreesboro. Hope everybody is having a great day. For those teachers out there, my wife is one. Not only do I love you, but super proud of you. Super proud of you as an educator and having this mea break, which is good. So good morning everybody. Good morning to you, whatever journey you're on in this life.

Hello, hello, hello. So I just want to share a little bit of like this journey thus far about it gets easier. So number one, for those that don't know, myself and a couple friends embarked on a big trip, a big trek. And the trek was from West Virginia to Nashville. And we thought it was going to be, you know, some 300 and some miles. And it's turning into a big, big, big trip of about 500 miles. Big, big walk. And so I wanted to share about day one. So I want to share about day one. So day one was, you know, the excitement of coming down and this big drive down and leaving at 6:30 in the morning and arriving at about midnight, right, all the way down to West Virginia.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. And so driving this big drive down, the excitement, we got this, let's go. And it's going to be amazing. And then all of a sudden we do the first day, okay? So we do the first day and we put in about 32 miles, okay? So we put in about 32 miles on day one. That's a big walk. That's six more miles than a marathon, right? So we were all like, to be frank, like a little jacked up. Like my friend Jason had blisters. My hip flexors, my hip flexors were just God awful, right?

So my hip flexors just hurt like, right? You know, the hip flexors is the muscle that's connecting obviously your legs to, you know, your lower back, your pelvis, all that stuff, right? They just hurt. And they hurt so God awfully, right? And so my, my legs hurt. My right calf, right, My right calf was a struggle bus. And I'm like, oh my God, I can't imagine. So waking up day two, I still had the excitement. I still had like this, this is going to be great. You know, it's going to be, going to be awesome.

Keep going. And then got into this next day and I'm like, holy s***, got to get back here. Got to get back on the tread Got to do it again. And what I want to share is 14 days later, it's not even. God, it's more than that. It's like 17 days later, you're sitting on the hamster wheel. What I want to say now is I am like so strong. What I mean by that is, you know, day one was hard. And not only like, the walking gets easier, but like life gets easier. You know, the communication, know where to talk, who to talk to, when to talk to them, when I can reach out, when the emails go, when does work, when does work come in like it, like life gets easier.

But you know what I'm going to tell you, it started off not easy and it was hard and my body was aching and broken and all of it. And now here we are, you know, day 20, let's call it. And I just, you know, we're basically trudging through a marathon a day a little bit more. My calves don't hurt. I wake up in the morning, my calves don't hurt, my hip flexors don't hurt. I am doing the Normatex, which is like these compression things around your legs. I'm doing an ice cold shower. I'm doing all the things to make sure that like, by tomorrow, by today, I got sunscreen, right?

Sunscreen all over. So like everything, every single thing hurt. Day one, I got a little burnt. You know, the sun was out, like how much water I was drinking. Like, it's no different than any first step in life. Like, any step in life, that first day just might suck. And that first try just might hurt. And that first next step to go, put yourself out there might be embarrassing, you might trip and fall, you might do anything. But I'm going to tell you, like, it gets easier. And again, I'm not going to lie and sit here and tell you, like, day one of 32 Miles was a cakewalk.

It sucked. It was hard, it was terrible. We had awesome people with, right, like connecting with individuals and having those conversations and laughing and, you know, we, we talked about things. We say, we don't get tired. We, we had all the words right. We don't get tired. We got this one extra step. Keep going, let's reload, let's refill. Like, let's do all that. But again, it's a walking. Sue, this is a big walk. This is a big walk of 500 miles that we've been on over the course of the last three weeks.

But so again, I just want to go back to this notion that I think is really Important for you all to take in because it applies to anything in life. The first time you try to do something, you might not be good at it. Em. And I always call it the fft. Bear with me. The effing first time and the effing first time might hurt, might be sad, might be painful, might be embarrassing, might be all of it. And then it gets easier, and then it gets easier, and then it gets easier. And three weeks in, like, I can safely tell you mentally, so strong, like, I can't wait to get up and walk.

I can't wait. I can't wait to see what I see. I can't wait to prepare. I can't wait to get my backpack loaded up with the water. I can't wait to get my stick in hand. Can't wait to get sunscreen on right away. Can't wait to prepare for what I need to intake in my body and ingest. And all because it didn't start off that way. It didn't. It didn't start off that way at all. I had to learn, had to grow through it, and had to figure it out. And so I'm not gonna. Actually, h*** with it. I'm going to.

So Jason and I were talking last night, and we were connecting, and we were saying, like, you know, what do you think we should do next year? And it's like, we haven't finished yet, and we have some 70 miles left to get to Nashville or whatever it is. But we were talking about it, and we were like, what should we do next year? What should be the next one? And so we talked about it, and it's gonna be released here shortly. But I'll tell you, it has to do with the state of Minnesota. It has to do with the state of Minnesota.

And fall in my hand, like, going like this and down and around and all the way. So that's just a little hint of what's to. So that'll be a big one next September. Gotta love the state of Minnesota. September will be a good time. October will be a good time. And then we could have a lot of love and support right in our backyard that may want to walk some miles with us around the state. So it'll be really fun. But as you sit at your work today, as you sit in life today, as you sit in thinking about one courageous conversation, one courageous step, one courageous moment, just know that with that courageous moment may come a little bit of pain.

And that pain doesn't mean physical. That pain, it could mean. But that pain could mean mental that pain could mean emotional, it could mean those things. And just know that that's okay, and that is okay to go through that. And the next day it'll be a little bit lighter and a little bit lighter and a little bit lighter. And then at a certain point, you might even be looking forward to it. And that's where I am. And now it's almost the sadness of getting to the point where it's going to be over, which is even scarier to me.

So you all take care. I just wanted to share that analogous. I think it's really important for life. Remember that with your kids. Remember that with other employees at work. Remember that with just everybody who's trying to find themselves and when they're trying to find themselves and figure it out mentally through drug abuse, rehab, mental health, depression, anxiety, personal growth, professional development, all of it. It doesn't just happenstance happen. And it's easy. And always remember, your hard is maybe different from somebody else's, and your easy is also different from somebody else's.

So I'm sending love to y' all and have a phenomenal, phenomenal Friday, a better weekend. And I always want to thank those teachers. My wife's an educator. She's one of the best in the world at it. Love her so much. Want to send big shout out and big love to our educators. All right, you all take care. Peace. You guys lift somebody up today. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye.