By Adrienne Richardson-Ryan with Julie Horner
“I bend so I don’t break!” Words for an Inspired 2019
January 2, 2015. “Today marks 4 years since I had my last drink. This year was harder than most…but I made it through…sober.” Five years ago she quit cigarettes. She started doing Jazzercise at Boulder Creek Recreation and Parks and lost 50 pounds. Now she teaches Jazzercise Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6:00 and one Saturday a month.
When she’s not teaching Jazzer-cise, she goes to the classes. “And I do the kickboxing in town with Sylvia – I really love her class on Wednesday nights – and of course I go to the hot yoga class.” She’s even been a lumberjack. “My husband does tree work. I watched them doing that for years and finally I decided to join them myself – I was kind of a rookie but they directed me.”
She and her husband, Tony, came out to California from Indiana when they were 23 as newlyweds with a backpack and a tent. “We came out here to go backpacking for our honeymoon and we just never left. We’re still on our honeymoon!”
Over time Adrienne has become an inspiration to others for staying sober. “I’ve been very open about it. I wouldn’t be as healthy and strong if I hadn’t stopped drinking by sheer willpower. I put my mind toward other things, I quit cold turkey and used working out as a huge incentive.” If there was no workout in town, she would just run. “Instead of drinking, I would just go out in the forest and breathe in the redwoods.”
“I love the forest. And now I work with Davey Resource Group in the forest with the trees…it kind of ties into the whole chainsaw thing!” Now she’s inspired to become a certified arborist. By May, she hopes, through a class at Cabrillo.
“This is where I’ve put my roots in. The people here – the open mindedness – I feel like I’ve found my place. The person who doesn’t fit in fits in here. That’s why we’re all here, to be our own person. And everyone wants to share love and joy – everybody pushes kindness here.”
“And everyone should do Jazzercise. If you can find that hour once a week it feels so great afterwards!”“We have people from the age of 15 to their mid-90s doing Jazzercise here in town. There’s high impact and low impact. We explain each movement, count the music out if you’ve never danced before. It’s not just women. Men do it, even one lady on a cane who sat on the side-lines and did the moves from her chair. The music is rock, hip hop, all the hits. And stuff I’ve never heard before that makes me giggle. Every-one sings at the top of their lungs while working hard. We’re putting it out there!
” Flying right into 2019 like…#ibelieveicanfly #happynewyear #new-beginnings #sober #youareworthit #wedorecover #onedayatatime #keepmovingforwardCheck out Jazzercise @ Boulder Creek Recreation Center | 1333 Middleton Ave, Boulder Creek | (831) 338-9716 | jazzgreene1@yahoo.com | https://jcls.jazzercise.com/facility/jazzercise-boulder-creek-recre-ation-center