Inspiration
Clotho pointed behind Nesta, her gnarled finger indicating the doorway. No, the pillar. And it was not sorrow leaking from the priestess, but something like buzzing excitement. Something that made Nesta whirl on her heel and stride for the pillar. A name had been scrawled on the sheet. One name, in bold letters. One name, ready for tomorrow’s lesson. GWYN. Page 267 of A Court of Silver Flames
I am HONORED to say that through my blog and my tiktok posts about Valkyrie Squad, I’ve had at least two women confirm to me that they’ve signed up for training because of my testimonies, because of what I’ve shared about my experience so far working out with Sam from The Micro Squad and talking nonstop about Valkyrie Squad training. It gives me drive, and a sense of achievement to know that I have helped to influence anyone to give it a try. It makes me feel heard, when I say that I am not who I was when I started, and this is all pre-launch.
When I tell you that I relate to Nesta and her darkness, being swallowed up by her own thoughts, her own mind, I am not exaggerating. Depression has been a part of my struggle since before the accident years ago, though the accident is what brought it rearing its ugly head at me with a force I was unprepared for. In the last five years I’ve endured my own trauma; from the car accident that robbed me of my running dreams, the death of a parent, moving from my beloved Alaska to Michigan, losing friends, losing more family, losing the restaurant we sunk our every cent into, the pandemic, losing our home and needing to live with extended family…. suffice to say, I have been through the wringer. Depression has been my First, Middle, and Last name. I’ve felt loss and failure to the depths of me, allowed it to eat me alive and turn me into a stone sinking fast, to the bottom of the Cauldron.
This book series is more than an idle time filler, it’s more than getting lost in fantasy. It’s the Catalyst that got me out of bed, that convinced me to try again. Finding Sam and her themed workouts was like the sweetest cherry on top of my sundae, because it gave me the gasoline I needed to kick start the fire in me. About a week before I found The Micro Squad and Sam’s account on Tiktok, I had the idea to begin training like Nesta, Emerie, and Gwyn, because I felt so connected to their stories. To their betrayal, their losses, their fight against what had been thrown at them. I remember texting my best friend and asking her, “Is it weird?” that I wanted to model my workouts after a fiction novel, if it was strange that I had become so obsessed with these books, enough to change my entire outlook on life. Bestie being her best self, she encouraged me to do it. “Does it matter that it’s a book that helped you see the light? If it gives you the fuel, then do it!” I began writing out mini circuits to help me get started, moves that I knew wouldn’t hurt my feet or bother my nerve damage, but that I knew were hard and I knew would give me a start.
Then I stumbled on @bodysamantix on Tiktok one day while doom scrolling, and it was like someone turned on the Sun. I felt like this person had reached inside my head and started creating the program I’d thought of a week before, someone had set fire to the fireworks, and I had to be part of it. It was my birthday weekend in July, and I bought myself the $12 membership on The Micro Gym, and signed up for Valkyrie Squad as my birthday gift to myself. The whole time I filled out the membership info my heart was hammering in my chest and a little voice in the back of my head tried to fill me with doubt- “you’ll never use it. You can’t even get dressed half the time, you’re going to work out?” I don’t know entirely what drowned out that voice, but I paid for my membership and started the next morning.
I’m not sure if SJM knew what she awoke in her readers, for I am not the only one who has been so inspired by her creation. I have seen countless women hop on a stair stepper with the goal of 10 thousand steps. I have seen women lifting, sweating, sprinting, repping until they fall over, body shaking with the intensity of the workouts they finished, all inspired by these books. All inspired by the stories of these powerful women overcoming their misfortunes, their trauma, overcoming the darkness of their own minds. I don’t know if she was aware of what her imagination would spur on when she wrote her series, but I hope she’s proud. I already am.
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