Last weeks
Chelsea Settles was a double header. The first new episode had Chelsea's trainer, Angela, inviting her to a weekend retreat with women in the same place as she. At first she is reluctant but after attending a talk with Jenna speaking about her drug addictions, she realizes she needs to do this to change for the better.
When she gets there she likes the thought of meeting people struggling with the same problem as she does. the thought of group therapy and opening herself up to total strangers to her deepest, hidden problems is another thing all together.
What is amazing is that she actually finds her inner strength to face her demons and also realizes that she doesn't need to stay silent when she feels that she needs to speak up. The therapist asks the girls to try and go back and think of a moment when they felt began them on the road of having a problem with weight.
Chelsea opens up and tells her story but many of the other women dodge the question and do not share. She realizes that she was angry about that and felt she needed to speak up. With a little encouraging from Angela she decides that she can speak up and voice her opinion. She gets the chance to do that on the last day of the retreat when the girls start to bad mouth the food and the cook preparing it.
She does feel the need to clear the air between her and her partner on the retreat. At the end it is probably the best thing she could have done for herself. She takes her new found voice and decides to talk to her boss about being the marketing lead for the store which leads into the next episode.
Let me say first that I believe it is great that Chelsea wanted to better her position at work but the way she did it was wrong. She started by telling Laura that she didn't like what she was doing and that she wanted to do something different. Never, let me repeat that, NEVER tell your boss you don't like what you are doing if you want to continue working for them.
What she should have said was that "I am grateful for what I have had the chance to do for you, but I feels like there is more I can do for the store and this is what it is..."
As any professional person would do, Laura asked what Chelsea feels she could do and after they look at that they would need to see what her future with the company would be, if any. Right there you should get nervous as an employee. Laura does give her the chance to show what she can do by telling her that she had a pop up event for the store and that she would let Chelsea plan it.
The next day when Chelsea comes into work Laura tells her that she feels that the event is too big for just one person to do and asks Ashley, Chelsea's coworker, to help. Right away Ashley jumps at the chance.
Laura asks them to work together and on it and Chelsea begins talking to Ashley about what she feels they could do for the event. Ashley shuts her down and says she works alone and that she should do her own thing and then they can get together to compare what they came up with.
In my opinion I believe that Ashley is part of the MTV scripting of their "
reality" shows. She is just too good and too willing to do everything that she seems fake in a way. But that is only my opinion. I do believe that she was wrong in what she felt Laura wanted them to do and that Chelsea was trying to do it right. I hope Laura sees that.
Chelsea does work out her plan for the event and does a great job of it, dressing up and doing a great presentation. But of course it is Ashley's idea that Laura goes with. Now they must work together to get it done and Chelsea seems to look forward at the chance regardless if it is her idea or not.
Chelsea is growing and changing before our eyes and I am excited to see it. One of the sayings I love from the show is from her trainer.
Nothing changes if you're comfortable. That is so true. And it is not always comfortable watching her go through some of this.
Tonight's episode will be another double header and should be interesting to see.
