Meet Laura: a long time fitness lover, full-time mom, PhD student, active duty military pilot, and Graviton member!
Outside of Graviton, Laura spends most of her time with her wife and hanging out with their 2½ year old daughter. They love to go to the park together and explore different playgrounds and splash pads, especially in the summer months. Laura is also an Air Force pilot and loves to fly, and hopes to get her daughter up in an airplane sometime soon.
Laura joined Graviton in August 2021 as a PhD student at Tufts University. “It’s just a hop and a skip up the hill, so it was really convenient to come down in the middle of the day, get a workout in, then head back up and continue on with my studies.”
Geographic convenience wasn’t the only deciding factor for Laura to choose Graviton. “I was looking for a gym that had a chill vibe,” she remarks. “I didn’t need to go somewhere that was pumping out CrossFit game athletes. I wanted something my pace, something accessible, something with good programming… and with coaches who take the time to go through the movements, give constructive feedback, are able to work with different levels of experience, and can incorporate all of that into a single class environment… I’ve found that Graviton has the best mix of great atmosphere and great programming. It was the complete package.”
When Laura was in a car accident about 10 years ago, she suffered a range of injuries from a shattered femur to a broken collarbone. Many of her fitness goals center around making sure that those injuries don’t continue to affect her as she ages.
“My goals are basically to maintain what I’ve got and be able to do in my late 30s what I could do in my late 20s to what I could do in my early 20s,” she says.
From playing Division 1 rugby at the Air Force Academy to being a Special Operations pilot, Laura is around a “culture of fitness” and has really taken that to heart. “[Working out] is about still finding something that scratches the competitive itch but also something that will allow me to maintain a certain level of fitness and age better and be strong enough to carry my two year old across Logan when we’re late to our flight,” says Laura. As part of her job, she takes a peak physical fitness test every year but her reason for training goes deeper than that: from finding community, to aging well, to keeping up with her daughter, to fitting in with her coworkers.
“I’m a big 12:15pm [class] attender, and there are some 12:15 regulars, but even when folks from other classes or new folks show up, it’s very welcoming. It's a very non-judgmental zone,” said Laura when asked about her favorite part of being a Graviton member. “Just being able to have a break in your day, take a load off and get some fitness in but also do it in a very supportive environment… you can’t ask for anything better than that.”
The views expressed in this blog are those of the interviewee and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Air Force, Department of Defense, or the US Government.