By Eddie Resch

The Hero’s Journey is a 12-step plot, closely followed by so many books and movies. Many people think it’s a little bit cliché and that it gets boring after a while. I’d argue, however, that it’s important to witness because the hero’s journey is often found in real life. My hero’s journey—starting mountain biking.

The first step of the hero’s journey is the Ordinary World. Mine—taekwondo. That was my summer 2025. It went like this: eat, sleep, taekwondo. I trained taekwondo all day long and as a 2nd-degree black belt, taught taekwondo to younger kids in the evenings. Some days I’d wake up before 6:00 am for morning practice, and after a short midday break, I wouldn’t return home from working at taekwondo until after 9:00 pm. I was getting burned out quickly, but I kept working hard in hopes of getting recognized as one of the hardest workers. I wouldn’t settle for just good—I was driven to be at the very top.

Step two—The Call to Adventure—took place at the 2025 World Championships. This was the first year of a new title called Best of the Best. The martial artists who accumulated the best results in each of the main five taekwondo events would be declared the winner. All year I’d pushed for the title. I’d trained so hard even though, deep down, I knew the ultimate result was out of my control. It didn’t matter how hard I trained; taekwondo’s a sport reliant on judges, not on time. In the end, I lost—barely. The loss felt worse due to my promising start. I ended up with more medals than the actual winner, but the scoring works in a complex way—too confusing to explain—so in the end, I lost.

The next day, with all my competition adrenaline gone, the exhaustion from the weeks of work and tournament preparation struck. I’d been feeling extremely drained at times, but this was on a whole new level. That day, I decided I couldn’t keep going. Taekwondo wasn’t allowing me to be a teenager. The environment was high-pressure, and competition wasn’t fair enough for my competitiveness. I determined, while I was still staying in the hotel by the convention center, that I’d search for a new sport—one I loved and could train hard at with fair judging and reasonable expectations.

Right after The Call to Adventure, the hero experiences a refusal to the call. Mine was brief. In my head, sticking with taekwondo, my main sport since eight years old, was easier than trying to find something brand new. I was scared of a new sport, and honestly, I was petrified of lacking something that I was good at. Even though I told my parents I was planning on quitting, during my post-worlds vacations far from taekwondo, a small part of me considered returning. Why? Because I feared the unknown.

Step four is Meeting the Mentor. Often it’s the mentor who pulls the hero from their refusal state, but my mentors—my parents—let the choice entirely be up to me. No matter my choice, I knew I’d maintain their support. However, it’s them who helped me find it—mountain biking. My parents both raced mountain bikes in the past and did extremely well in the Winter Park series. There’s no specific time in my journey where I met my mentors, but it’s important to include how they guided me throughout the way. Without them, I most definitely wouldn’t have ventured through all twelve steps. It was my mom who convinced me to try Monarch’s mountain bike team.

Crossing the Threshold, the fifth step, is my favorite in my own journey. It’s when I learned that competing in your favorite sport shouldn’t produce more pressure than fun. It happened at my first-ever race, Steamboat. At this point, I’d gone to a few team practices, rode with my parents a little, and I really started to enjoy it. With no points and signing up last, I was last to be called up—dead last. I was nervous, lined up in the start shoot, but as soon as I was off, those nerves shifted, and I began to have more fun than I ever even had at my first few MTB practices. There was a certain feeling I got as I raced. The vibes of racing on the course were so unique. As I completed the final steep, grueling uphill and prepared for the last flowy downhill of Steamboat’s course, I already knew I loved racing mountain bikes. I fell in love with the sport mid-race.

My journey’s only missing one item from step six (Tests, Allies, and Enemies)—enemies. I haven’t made any mountain biking enemies—not any rivals yet, either. I’ve definitely made friends though, and I’ve been tested while enduring dozens of long, strenuous climbs. Cross country mountain bike racing isn’t easy—each challenging practice and race tested my limits—but that’s one of my favorite things about it.

Step seven is approaching the Innermost Cave, and for me, that was joining a mountain bike club team in the Spring. It was the point where I fully threw myself into the sport; it was no longer just a hobby. I was worried because when I engulfed myself in taekwondo, it swallowed me whole, and I didn’t want the same thing to happen. But after beginning to ride for Build Cycling Academy, I realized that the only pressure would be internal. My coaches push me to be better, but they understand that mountain biking is for fun and that, to be at your fastest, you need rest and recovery.

The eighth step is the Ordeal—the biggest challenge the hero faces. For my journey, it was the battle between mountain biking and another sport—triathlons. A duel took place in my mind, since in the spring, I sparked more of an interest in both swimming and running. At first, I wanted to make a choice—mountain biking or triathlons. But in the end, I chose both. I’m aiming for the goal of becoming a high-level Xterra racer; however, I’m aware that I don’t need to choose exactly what I want to do yet. Mountain biking is good training for triathlons, and triathlons help mountain biking. That’s what brings me to step nine.

The Reward is what the hero came for in the first place. My reward was a new sport and a new passion that I love. I didn’t only get one reward, but in a way, I received two. Now I have two sports that I can train hard with, without them feeling like a job. I’ve undoubtedly achieved my original mission.

Not every hero’s journey needs to follow the twelve steps to a tee. I don’t have step ten because it’s the Road Back. I’m not going back to my ordinary world; I’ve made the unknown both known and loved. I don’t have step eleven either—the Resurrection, the final challenge. Or maybe it’s yet to come, only after step twelve. Maybe it will be a big race years from now at a massive Xterra event I trained hard for, or maybe the Olympics for either mountain biking or triathlons. I’m not sure, but what I do know is that I’m fully committed to training in these sports while keeping them low-stress and enjoyable. No matter how competitive they become, I’m not letting the pressure override my love for the sports.

Step twelve—Return With Elixir—connects to that. The elixir is a bonus lesson or reward the hero gained without initially knowing they needed it. Joining the mountain bike team has not only granted me a new sport and passion, but it’s also taught me two valuable lessons: the right passion shouldn’t feel like a job, and you should love it, win or lose. Taekwondo felt like a job—and not just some of the time, but most. Plus, the pressure of winning was unbearable. Mountain biking never feels like work. Even huffing and puffing through a steep climb can be fun. Maybe I’m just insane, but something about it is pretty awesome, and I’ll never dread whipping through a downhill. I love each race, even if I don’t finish with the perfect result I was aiming for. Mountain biking has inspired me to seek more enjoyment in life and to help others find activities that they love to do. There are so many people trapped in activities they don’t like, and I encourage anyone who feels that way to escape. Even if it’s scary—escape.

My Hero’s Journey was a source of future inspiration for me, and it’s a story that I hope will help guide others, too. As painful as losing was in the moment, I’m grateful I did. That day—the 2025 World Championships—will forever be sewn into my memory. It’s the day that I embarked on my life-changing hero’s journey and found a gateway to a new passion, which has taught me incredible lessons with more to come.

Eddie Resch is a Junior at Monarch high school. He competes in triathlons and mountain bike racing. Eddie is planning on completing his first off-road Triathlon in 2027.