Week 20: Community Conversations
I've been training outside a lot more lately which is awesome for many reasons, but it's also allowing me to interact with the "public"/strangers/wandering souls a lot more. Just from my office to the gym, with a training stop in between, I had four funny little interactions with people about parkour.
The first started at my office (so I guess it wasn't technically a stranger). My supervisor's husband was there and when we were introduced he gave me an Ooh you're the parkour intern! Ha, yes yes I am. We started talking about my training briefly and he wanted to know where I do parkour. That's the best part, I explained. Anywhere and everywhere. Hard to picture, I'm sure, for someone who hasn't seen it before. And I always try to discourage anyone I talk to from using their YouTube imagination. Not all of us jump off buildings or climb 90-foot cranes. I like being in one piece.
Next, E and I were walking towards a park to workout after work and we were waiting at a crosswalk. A young man leaving work looked at us in our athletic gear in a pool of suits and asked where we worked out. I could've just said we were on our way to the gym but I like sharing what I do with curious strangers. They always think it's so "different." One of these days, I'll say I train parkour and the stranger will say Oh, that's awesome. I know exactly what you're talking about! Anyways, I explained to him that we do parkour and therefore where is wherever we can.
We made it to the Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square and started warming up. As part of our warm up, we were doing lunges up and down one of the walkways. A suit walked by and our conversation went like this:
Suit: Lunges?
Me: Yeah!
Suit: Here?
Me: Why not?
(The suit shrugged.)
Suit: I agree!
We continued with our warm up, and then moved into some balance on the rails. At this point, a nice gentleman from Events DC came out to inform E and I that we were on private property. Uh oh.. I thought. Preparing myself to get kicked out (after I got over my confusion that it was private property even though the building said "Public Library" on it) I asked the man if we were allowed to be there. Surprising us, he said he'd prefer if we stayed closer to the street but we could stay and do what we were doing. What are you doing anyways? he asked. I explained parkour and the different skills we were training (balance, jumping, getting over things, etc.) and he was fascinated. In the end he told us not to hurt ourselves. And don't sue them. Sir, I don't plan on hurting myself. I assured him we'd be safe. He was satisfied and left us to our workout. A bit later, we had a similar conversation with another Events DC employee-- Are you girls exercising? The woman asked. Yup! Okay, well... just don't hurt yourselves! We'll be careful!
It seems that everyone in this city is extremely concerned for our safety. And then there's the tourists who just clap excitedly when we do something cool. Actually, it doesn't even have to be cool. I missed a jump I was trying to make from one leg on the rail to a wall nearby and they started clapping. I looked at them, confused, and smiled.
It was fun telling so many people about parkour in one day. I also love when I can have positive interactions with property owners and managers who allow us to play on their buildings instead of shooing us away! I've noticed one of the guys I train with a lot always interacts with passersby when we're outside and I think it's important. Some people won't want to talk to you but others slow down or even stop completely to stare at you curiously. We could ignore them and keep training... or we could smile, say hi/how are you, and talk to them about what we're doing. That doesn't mean we have to chase down everyone who walks by but even just a smile or a hello will encourage those who are genuinely interested to ask us about it. I think it helps to build a good relationship with the community.
I've been training outside a lot more lately which is awesome for many reasons, but it's also allowing me to interact with the "public"/strangers/wandering souls a lot more. Just from my office to the gym, with a training stop in between, I had four funny little interactions with people about parkour.
The first started at my office (so I guess it wasn't technically a stranger). My supervisor's husband was there and when we were introduced he gave me an Ooh you're the parkour intern! Ha, yes yes I am. We started talking about my training briefly and he wanted to know where I do parkour. That's the best part, I explained. Anywhere and everywhere. Hard to picture, I'm sure, for someone who hasn't seen it before. And I always try to discourage anyone I talk to from using their YouTube imagination. Not all of us jump off buildings or climb 90-foot cranes. I like being in one piece.
Next, E and I were walking towards a park to workout after work and we were waiting at a crosswalk. A young man leaving work looked at us in our athletic gear in a pool of suits and asked where we worked out. I could've just said we were on our way to the gym but I like sharing what I do with curious strangers. They always think it's so "different." One of these days, I'll say I train parkour and the stranger will say Oh, that's awesome. I know exactly what you're talking about! Anyways, I explained to him that we do parkour and therefore where is wherever we can.
We made it to the Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square and started warming up. As part of our warm up, we were doing lunges up and down one of the walkways. A suit walked by and our conversation went like this:
Suit: Lunges?
Me: Yeah!
Suit: Here?
Me: Why not?
(The suit shrugged.)
Suit: I agree!
We continued with our warm up, and then moved into some balance on the rails. At this point, a nice gentleman from Events DC came out to inform E and I that we were on private property. Uh oh.. I thought. Preparing myself to get kicked out (after I got over my confusion that it was private property even though the building said "Public Library" on it) I asked the man if we were allowed to be there. Surprising us, he said he'd prefer if we stayed closer to the street but we could stay and do what we were doing. What are you doing anyways? he asked. I explained parkour and the different skills we were training (balance, jumping, getting over things, etc.) and he was fascinated. In the end he told us not to hurt ourselves. And don't sue them. Sir, I don't plan on hurting myself. I assured him we'd be safe. He was satisfied and left us to our workout. A bit later, we had a similar conversation with another Events DC employee-- Are you girls exercising? The woman asked. Yup! Okay, well... just don't hurt yourselves! We'll be careful!
It seems that everyone in this city is extremely concerned for our safety. And then there's the tourists who just clap excitedly when we do something cool. Actually, it doesn't even have to be cool. I missed a jump I was trying to make from one leg on the rail to a wall nearby and they started clapping. I looked at them, confused, and smiled.
It was fun telling so many people about parkour in one day. I also love when I can have positive interactions with property owners and managers who allow us to play on their buildings instead of shooing us away! I've noticed one of the guys I train with a lot always interacts with passersby when we're outside and I think it's important. Some people won't want to talk to you but others slow down or even stop completely to stare at you curiously. We could ignore them and keep training... or we could smile, say hi/how are you, and talk to them about what we're doing. That doesn't mean we have to chase down everyone who walks by but even just a smile or a hello will encourage those who are genuinely interested to ask us about it. I think it helps to build a good relationship with the community.
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