Happy Medium Club: Volume 5
"Our favorite freak of nature laced up his running shoes for a light jog."
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Today, we’re talking about television programs, marathons, spinal surgery, and chaotic Gen Z energy. And we created a Spotify playlist inspired by television programs, marathons, spinal surgery, and chaotic Gen Z energy.
Stream HMC: Volume 5
TV Shows Co-Signed by Joel Moisa
By Joel
I will not be explaining why you should watch any of these shows —simply watch them and make up your own opinions.
Atlanta
The Rehearsal
Reservation Dogs
The Summer I Turned Pretty
The Bear
Ramy
House Of Dragons
If you like these shows and want to talk to someone about them, you should find a relevant Subreddit. Okay bye!
Taylor Prather, spinal surgery, and the Chicago Marathon
By Dom
I met Taylor Prather at work in 2018. He’s chill. He was my boss for a few years. Now we’re pals! Okay, that’s enough exposition.
Taylor has been running pretty much every day for the past several years—for fun, for health, for good brain vibes. He runs around trails, he runs 10Ks, he runs 5Ks. And sometimes, because he’s a freak of nature, he runs marathons.
A year ago, he found out he needed to get surgery to realign some disconnected vertebrae in his spine. Unfortunately, he had to stop running for a while. Actually, after his surgery, he needed to relearn how to run.
He documented the journey on his Instagram channel, @taylorgotmarathons (not to be confused with his primary Instagram channel @taylorgotpics). His story is inspiring. So I stole his content and packaged it up below. See for yourself!
Phase 1: Spinal Fusion ☹️
If you’re Meredith Grey, you might understand this next sentence: Taylor needed spinal fusion surgery to fix a fracture of the Pars interarticularis (Spondylolysis), a forward slippage of the vertebra (Anterolisthesis), and a degenerated disc (degenerated disc).
The aforementioned big words caused nerve pain and spinal instability, which prevented him from doing what he loves. Running.
Phase 2: Post-Op
His surgery was successful! Yeet! But the recovery process was grueling.
So, naturally, he immediately started training for the Chicago marathon (like I said, freak of nature).
For the next month, Taylor made slow but steady progress— a walker led to a walking stick which led to a treadmill which led to a Peloton, and so on. Within three weeks post-op, this freak of nature walked 51.7 miles.
Taylor mentioned the recovery process wasn’t linear. Dealing with nerve pain and mental anguish, the good days and bad days were all jumbled together.
After nine months of good days and bad days—including Peleton rides, afternoon hikes, swimming pools, Stairmasters, cookies, and beyond—our favorite freak of nature laced up his running shoes for a light jog.
Phase 3: Marathon Training
Six months after his surgery, Prather walked 915 miles (just 85 miles short of Vanessa Cartlon’s standards). He’d biked 433 miles on the Peloton. He’d run about 30 miles. And clocked over 230 hours of physical therapy.
Equipped with some newfound stability, he had about a year to train for the Chicago Marathon—and he did!
TBH, it would be mad disrespectful to Taylor if I tried to consolidate his training process into a few paragraphs.
Now would be a great time for a training montage. But this is famously an email… So, can we just pretend like the next few pictures are part of a tastefully filmed inspirational training montage set to Missy Elliot’s Get ur Freak On?
Phase 4: Marathon!
One week out from the marathon, Taylor looked at old footage from the early days of his recovery.
Here’s what he had to say.
I can actually see the lack of confidence and hesitancy with every step taken. Fast forward to one of my last speed workouts and all of that doubt has been erased. The doubt and uneasiness around subjecting my body to hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of force upon impact. The doubt when I get that tweak that’s just enough to cause a cascade of anxiety. The doubt that I had the willpower to do any of this in the first place.
I’m feeling more comfortable and confident in my scarred up body and what it can handle. Of what my mind is capable of. I’m thankful for everything I’ve learned on this journey back to doing what I love and I’m looking forward to putting it all to use this Sunday in Chicago.
Thank you to everyone who has ever said a kind word, kept me in your thoughts, helped me along the way or even just followed along with all the stories and posts. Documenting all of this has been so therapeutic for me. Okay no more words, think it’s all out… for now.
Reader, guess what happened next?
He did it! I am proud of him, and so are you!
Q&A with Taylor
What was the most rewarding part of your journey?
“Being able to reflect on everything it took to get to this point and have the marathon serve as that ‘okay, we’re like really back now.’ It’s almost like Part II of the journey has just begun and that’s the most rewarding feeling.”
And the most difficult part of your journey?
“Trusting the journey. There’s a lot of feedback and talk that I had with myself and sometimes it wasn’t very pleasant, especialy when encountering a setback or not hitting a goal I had set. When I was first cleared to run, there still quite a bit of pain. Instances like those are when you really have to trust the path you’re on and have patience.”
How did you stay motivated?
“This one right here is three-fold. Is that a phrase? I dunno fam, we’ll roll with it.
I thoroughly enjoy being told I cannot do something. The first doctor I saw told me I would not be able to return to the running activity level I wished to.
I was supposed to run the Chicago Marathon two years ago! It’s one of the premiere races in the world and I wanted so deeply to experience the energy that I had only been able to hear about. Having this as my North Star gave me something to keep striving for.
Pey (my wifey) was always there through some of the uncertainty and darkness. I felt before and after the surgery. Having her to lean on was huuuuuuge.”
“I am no role model or anything, and I really did this for myself—but there’s a small piece of me that hopes somebody going through a tough time is able to recognize their own power to overcome whatever challenges they’re facing.” — Taylor
Taylor—you’re a smart guy. And we’re normally on the same wavelength. But “I am no role model” is the DUMBEST thing I’ve ever heard. LMFAOOOOOO. You’re a role model to me!!! And probably like 249 other people at least.
Everything else you said resonates, though. Thanks for the reminder that humans are powerful.
You’ll hear more from Taylor later. In the meantime, follow him on IG!
10 quotes that embody the chaotic essence of my sister Dana (and Gen Z in general)
By Dom
This is an abridged version of a more chaotic article.
Dana has made a few appearances in the Happy Medium Club Cinematic Universe. As you might already know, Dana is unhinged. And so is her entire generation — which makes me so very proud.
If I had to describe her in 17 words, they would be funny, scary, chaotic, menace, Aquarius, teacher, genius, alpha, beautiful (no offense) kind, terrifying, brave, rude, & reads-a-lot-of-manga.
Here are 10 quotes that illustrate the essence of Dana and her fellow gen-z punky-punks:
“The barbie to LGBT pipeline. Very nice to see.” Context unknown.
“I live to tear people down.” Dana said this to one of my friends she had just met.
“My love language is actually sadism.” Context unknown.
“I love your gay brother.” Dana’s friend said this about me after hearing me talk about Taylor Swift.
“Life isn’t fair when there are gay skater boys involved.” Context unknown.
“Dang, why is that thing so bright?” Dana said this while staring at the sun.
“Guy Fieri was born in Columbus, Ohio.” Dana’s response to “what did you learn in school today?”
“Nothing.” Anna’s1 response to “what did you learn in school today?”
“Why are you letting yourself get bullied by a beta?” My friend told Dana I was bullying him. Dana responded by obliterating both of us at once.
“Gross. I love you too.” Dana’s response when I told her I loved her. 😊
Happy Bits
(Curated by Sam)
Here are the secret codes to saving money at Costco!
What are we wearing to restaurants now, Paris? We’ve been dying to know.
Selena Gomez, queen of our hearts, launched a new site called Wondermind, a multimedia platform addressing mental health and creating more education around it.
Is it a resume or is it cake? Why not both!
I want Lucas Levitan to draw on all my photos (digital vandalism but make it cute).
Thanks for reading! You are a scholar!
Have a Happy Halloween. Or Happy Holidays if you don’t celebrate.
Anna is my youngest sister. She won’t let me feature her in this newsletter, so I hope she doesn’t read this.