Imagine this: A dark room, the mirrors fogged with steam, your legs are tired, your breathing is labored, people inspired, you are sitting on a bike trying to keep your legs moving, covered in sweat, with tears forming in your eyes.

You are imagining SoulCycle. I am sure you have heard of it – if not from me, then from one of their many inspired cyclers. However, if you haven’t, I will give you the run down. SoulCycle is a cycling class that is done in the dark with a few candles lit around the instructor, and music blasting in the background. Your bike is in close proximity to others, and you are moving continually for 45-60 minutes. During this time, you are supposed to focus on yourself and your journey. The main goal of this class is to come out feeling stronger and feeling good. Avoiding comparing yourself to your neighbors is the biggest way to do so.

The summer going into my senior year of high school, I went through something that made me feel weak: I was sexually assaulted. As a result, I felt like I lost who I was and spent most of my days being scared. Without any knowledge of what I went through or how I was feeling, my neighbor invited me to go to a SoulCycle class with her. October 15, 2016, was the day my life started to change for the better.

The class I went to was a Soul Survivor class. It was an hour of intense spinning, along with weights, and then an ending stretch. I went to a class that was instructed by someone I knew. This helped a little because although we may have gone somewhere I had never been before, it already felt familiar.

Going into this class, I was informed of how challenging it would be, so I foresaw the worst. I honestly did not believe in myself enough to think I was skillful enough to be doing this. In my head, I wasn’t strong enough to accomplish the class at all.

When you feel weak, it is difficult to feel strong again. However, as I was spinning, the instructor was shouting things into the dark room. He was saying how we are survivors, which really stuck out to me. That is one of the most memorable words from that class. Survivor. I am a survivor in more ways than one. We are all survivors whether it’s that you survived a day of class, you survived through a speech you had to make, you are a cancer survivor, assault or rape survivor, or a survivor from a shooting. We have all survived something, and we are all bigger than something. I survived that very difficult class, and I survived sexual assault – proving that I am bigger than both of them. This helped me realized that nothing can hold me down, and nothing can hold me back.

A large part of this class that I feel every time I walk back into the cycling studio is the community that has been fostered there. An aspect of the Survivor class and every other class is that we are working towards something together. The people you ride with support you and you support them. No, we may not be working towards the same thing, but that doesn’t matter. You realize that you are not alone in what you’re going through. Whether the people around you know what you’re going through or not, they are still going to support you.

SoulCycle made me realize a lot about myself. It made me see that what I was and what I am going through is not going to keep me down. There was a point in the class where I almost started crying from how inspiring the instructor was, and I realized how hard I was being on myself. I continued to feel weak, and I just let myself feel that way... until this class. It all changed when I sat on the bike and opened my ears to what my body was telling me. I can do this. I can overcome this, and nothing is going to hold me back. Nothing can make me feel weak. I now know what I am capable of, and I know how strong I am and how much stronger I can get.

If you ever feel weak, I highly recommend SoulCycle. It will change the way you look and feel about yourself. You will see what you are capable of.

Take your journey. Change your body. Find your soul.