Fast is a Feeling

We're gonna tell you a quick two-part story about two of our friends, Jessi and Dawn - stick with us, yeah?

In 2019 we had an epiphany about this word we all use - "FAST". 

We were talking with our *very fast* friend - the late Jessi Combs and her boyfriend Terry at a campout in South Dakota. (Godspeed, Jessi - alive in our beating hearts forever. Terry - we love you.) 

Jessi was talking about what she did best - going FAST. She was literally the best at it, known to the world as the "Fastest woman on four wheels" and shortly after meeting her - she became one of our favorite women on two, but we digress.

Jessi talked about the feeling of setting the land speed records she had set. She talked about how she wished everyone could feel that feeling, one that, by virtue of these speeds being a record - she ACTUALLY was the only one. 

Jessi passed later that month, after breaking the existing women's land speed record at 522.783 miles per hour. 

She was the fastest.

Jessi's story is one that has inspired, inspires now and will continue to inspire. Our epiphany came from the juxtaposition of Jessi's "Fast" and another "fast" we saw that same campout. 

Enter Dawn Gillman.

Dawn is a mother of 5, a wife, and on the day in question - an absolute sender. Dawn tells us that she loves coming out too this party because for one day a year - she lets it ALL go. The memory conjures an image of Dawn, and  - mother of 5 - borrowing a Coleman mini-bike and absolutely charging toward a ramp we had made out of a wheel and a piece of wood we found lying around. She had that pull start motor pegged and was probably flirting with a furious pace of 16 or 17 miles per hour toward this ramp. The biggest smile on her face as she nearly wadded it up on the landing causing concern amongst the onlookers. She was fine. She was more than fine. She had found her edge and she was RIDING it. She had found this elusive feeling we call "FAST." 

Dawn was not the fastest. 

Don't get us wrong - 17 MPH wasn't the top speed Dawn ever reached. She rides a big girl bike and has surely flown in a plane - but the FEELING she felt that day at 17MPH, that's what we're talking about when we use the word "FAST."

Now Jessi and Dawn have two very different stories, and the feeling of "FAST" they experienced in our stories only differed by a mere 500+ MPH give or take - but while each feeling was different and unique to each of them - we call both "FAST."

The thoughts and juxtaposition lived in our minds and in conversations until we dropped a line dedicated to this concept in November 2020 - "Fast is a Feeling." We wanted to redefine "Fast" as not a speed but almost an emotion. One we own as individuals when we find that feeling of living on our edge. For some of us, that means setting land speed records, for some, it's 17 MPH on a mini bike and for all of us it's embracing the very is of now and living according to OUR life's unique and very special "best story." 

So as we drop this long-sleeved collection - whether you choose to have one for yourself or not - we encourage you to consider what living "Fast" means to you. We encourage you to set yourself free of a pace set by comparison and instead ask inwardly what you could be doing to feel this feeling of living on your edge a little more often. 

"Do not focus on counting years in your life, but rather focus on making the years in your life count." 

Fast is a Feeling. 

-GFDD

PS. Check out and support the Jessi Combs Foundation if you can 🙏🏼