This is my Western Flash t-shirt. The shirt itself isn’t much to look at anymore - worn thin where my messenger bag rubbed against my shoulder, then frayed around the collar - but it means the world to me. These handmade shirts were my first real team kit.
I haven’t had many team uniforms in my life. I played for the Firecrackers soccer team in third grade and a basketball team in middle school, but I have never been a team sports kind of girl. I was not athletically gifted in any apparent or useful way when I was a kid. I could pogo stick to one thousand bounces, but when it came to the kinds of skills that could pull a team through in a pinch, I came up a bit short. And I knew it. I shied away from sports in which my performance mattered to anyone else. When I got older, I found my niche in individual sports like running and biking.
Surprisingly, it was through being a bike messenger that I learned what it meant to be on a team. Like most messengers in Portland, I coveted a spot on the four-person Western Flash crew. They rode harder, and faster, and earned more money for doing it. I worked hard, but my company neither required nor rewarded for it.
One note about how to break into the messenger business in Portland - it’s not the guys at the office that hire you. It’s the crew on the street. So when I was offered a spot on the Western Flash crew in my second year of messengering, I was elated. It meant more to me by far than getting accepted to the college of my choice. I wasn’t chosen for personal achievements or my SAT score, but because it mattered to the others on the crew how I worked. I wasn’t the fastest, but I was diligent. I was unflinching.
Now, for the second time in my life, I have a team kit: The Super Relax Concept.
The Super Relax Concept is about showing up to a cross race literally ready to kick ass. It’s about challenging other teams to bocce. And it comes with it’s own manifesto:
LOOK GOOD.
BE NICE.
KEEP DREAMIN’.
It’s snazzy and new and nothing like my beloved Western Flash shirt. You see, I know that I have grit and tenacity folded up on a shelf for when I need it. I have seen a bit of glory through suffering, and know that there are other flavors of glory too. The Super Relax Concept celebrates pure stoke, and I want to wear this jersey out with the glory of two wheels, a big grin, and an open heart.
