fitbit tender_square it started as one of those corporate wellness programs. i’d save money on my health insurance if i wore a step counter and turned that data over for discounts and points. i didn’t think i’d like wearing it, they seemed bulky and unfashionable. then, i started using it and became a true believer for several years. it’s funny, the inaccuracy you carry in your mind for often you’re moving in a day; i anticipated that i would easily reach my goal of 10,000 steps per day (5 miles) but the reality was that i far more inactive than i’d known, especially working at a desk eight hours. getting to that level of steppage daily required an investment in walking, sometimes upwards of an hour or more to reach it. eventually, i got my mom a fitbit as a gift and we started competing against one another in weekly challenges to see who could get the most steps. we’d be constantly syncing our updates and monitoring each other, springing into sneak attacks near the end of the day when the other was more vulnerable, and 7,000 steps suddenly became 11,000. “oh, i was on the phone with grandma and i kept walking circles around the table,” mom would say. “oh, i was running in place for about 30 minutes before bed,” i’d tell her. my sister-in-law and mother-in-law were also on the fitbit train, and i invited them into our mother-daughter competitions. mom and i were sassing each other the whole time, i’d say things to her like, “how does my dust taste?!” when meanwhile, anne and leigh ann were cheering one another on cordially. then there were days i walked more than what i thought was humanly possible. when i went to nyc with michael’s family and we strolled from the holiday inn through times square and washington square park and down into the financial district before stopping at the waterfront in lower manhattan, i had taken 24,000 steps, i had walked 12 miles. i went through a couple of fitbits over the years, wearing them out from constant recharging. i stopped using mine in the second semester of grad school; so much time spent at home because of covid made it difficult to string successful days together and i got tired of having visual evidence of how far i was from my goal—i didn’t have the energy to meet it when i was grinding so hard at my desk, day in and day out. michael kept telling me i didn’t need to track my progress, it seemed silly; so long as i was making an effort to move, that’s what mattered. i unclasped my monitor. it’s not about the quantity of steps you’re taking towards your dreams, it’s the quality of your intention when you set your path to meet it. 220118 what's it to you? who go blather from