He races, he drives, and now he thrives. He spends his weekends at the track; when he’s not at work, he’s fixing his trucks.

Recovering from a divorce is difficult. Not having many friends and living alone doesn’t help with the process. After a while, things got easier for this man in Holland, Michigan. For this article he wishes to be anonymous, so I’ll call him “Meeusen” for this story.

When Meeusen was married, he liked to race around tracks outside with RC cars: small car models that are remotely controlled by the user. Because of his sadness, he stopped the hobby when he was in the process of getting divorced.He was lonely so sometimes he goes to the Wastelands racing track in Grand Rapids a lot with a $10 admission fee for the number of races done in one day.. The club has memberships and volunteers; all profits go to make the track better. There are four race tracks, two off road tracks, one oval track, one drag strip, and crawler tracks, which include rock crawler trucks and takes navigation skills to drive the trucks though the tracks.

At the tracks, he forgets about the divorce. He said, “I’m generally very happy when I’m around there, because I have some friends and we have fun, and you get that adrenaline rush when everyone is racing behind you and when you win you’re excited because you won.” While fixing his trucks, he talks about the amount of money all of his cars are worth, with upgrades included. That total comes to roughly $3800 worth of RC cars and parts. Meeusen is very committed to his hobbies. He even has a side business fixing computers for people; he is probably the biggest nerd I have ever interviewed.

RC cars occupy Meeusen’s boredom. “I like it because, you know, I like to tinker with stuff, and my whole life I’ve liked cars. I like going fast and this is a way I can afford. You get to meet new people and talk smack if you beat everybody.” He laughs with a big smile on his face when he says this. “Smells like dirt,” he said, “Occasionally someone brings a nitro RC car, which is really bad to breathe in.” He laughs again with still a bit of seriousness in his voice when he talks about the surroundings at the tracks.

The garage door opens and all the nerds get in a line at the workshop stations to ready their cars. When you walk in, the smell of sweat and dirt fill your nostrils. As you continue to walk to the right of the entrance you see a wooden stand with a bunch of guys standing on the platform, controllers in hand and smiles on their faces. On the ground lay long yellow tubes nailed into the dirt creating the tracks. Standing near the tracks you get dirt and dust in your face if you’re too close. When there are kids, they have what they call “track runners”. These track runners are in charge of running on the track to flip the trucks back over when they crash. Sometimes it can be dangerous when running through the other cars while they are still racing. One single hit to the ankle at 30mph can send you to the ground. It feels like the blisters you get when you wear low socks with boots; with the burning pain for a few days when you walk. To the left of the track you have the two off road tracks, one drag strip, and crawler tracks. The 4 other tracks are outside, only open on certain days when they have enough volunteers.

I think we’ve all learned that bad situations can lean into good pastimes. It doesn’t necessarily have to be with divorce, but any rough situation. You just have to find the good within the bad. He was going through a rough time with his divorce, so he tried something he used to like and it ended up being a good way for him to relax and have fun. That’s how Meeusen got through his divorce. Now he has a new girlfriend and is very happy, still racing his RC cars like the nerd he once was years ago.