Talk to enough people about CrossFit and you get one of three responses:

1. Best thing that’s ever happened to my fitness.

2. What’s that?

3. PEOPLE’S HEADS ARE FALLING OFFFFF!!!

The truth probably lies somewhere in the blurry gray areas between. But that’s kind of like life, isn’t it? Life is full of nuance; unable to fit on a bumper sticker or status update. It’s easy to forget that we’re responsible for shading in the gray to whatever degree our heart desires.

Did someone steal the a viral idea you’ve been working on all year and claim it as their own? Yeah, that sucks. You can choose to see it as stealing or be proud that you’re solving people’s problems and you’ll get ’em the next time.

What about social media? Sure, it can be a petri dish of a-holes, butt hurtedness, and ignorance. It can also be a platform to share in all the best moments of your friends’ lives near and far. You have the choice to be offended or angry.

How about your fitness? Do you despise someone in class? Do you think that Zeus himself reached down and granted someone a chiseled body and unprecedented work capacity? You have the choice to high-five that person or continue to spin some fictitious web about how they arrived at where they are; ignoring other struggles that may be going on inside them.

Whatever you’re looking for, you will surely find it.

Wellness, career, relationships, friendships, dating, and – yes – even burpees. CrossFit can be a cult of fanatics frenetically checking in on Facebook with pictures of torn hands in a sweaty heap on the ground. Or, it can be a tight-knit group of supportive, professional, charitable adults who are ecstatic to no longer be shamed and diminished by the traditional fitness paradigm. Both are true. Just depends on what you’re looking for, I guess.