AFK, Living my Dream

It's ridiculous how little time I have to blog now - but I want to make it clear that it's because I'm having the time of my life.

A year ago I could not have imagined that I would've taken the plunge and be where I am now, experiencing happiness the way I am now. I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever been this happy.

It's exhausting, it's overwhelming at times, and it's hard work. Though I catch myself looking back and thinking, "WTF happened?!"

I didn't think that I would enjoy group fitness instructing this much. I'm a fully certified RPM instructor now, and have a regular class which I teach once every two weeks at a gym in West Auckland. I also cover other instructors classes when they can't teach their regular ones for whatever reason (holiday, illness, etc), and have three weeks of covering at a gym in Howick (East Auckland) up ahead, and have taught a couple of times in a gym an hours drive outside of Auckland in Pukekohe. I'm also beginning my training in BODYJAM and starting to teach a couple of tracks here and there at a couple of gyms.

When I talk to family friends and acquaintances, one thing they constantly ask me is "WHY?!", exasperated that I would put myself through what seems like hours of physical training and hard work for seemingly very little monetary payoff.

To give you an idea... for the regular classes I teach, I get $40NZ for it before tax. Given how much time I spend listening and rehearsing choreography (and we have to purchase the choreography), and driving around to classes, that monetary gain gets chewed up pretty quickly. And in the case of BODYJAM where I haven't actually passed the Les Mills Initial Training module, when I teach it, it's for free.

So why? Why does this make me so happy?

Yesterday, myself and a certified Jam instructor friend of mine drove down to Pukekohe to teach a BODYJAM class. The traffic was horrendous, and what ordinarily takes 45 minutes took us 2 hours. We arrived, thankfully, with 10 minutes before class started.

I'm very new in the Jam scene so I know that I could've done better and know what I need to work on - I taught two tracks and like I said, I could've done better, but I think I am pleased with how it went. Me and my friend were covering what is ordinarily a Zumba class, but because they couldn't find another Zumba instructor to cover, it was turned into a Jam class.

While we did have a few confused looks from a few of the members for the class (understandably, the complexity of BODYJAM and Zumba are very different), 99% of them stayed for the whole class.

One girl came up to us afterwards and said, "Thank you so much, you guys made my day. See you next week?" She was a bit heartbroken when we told her it wasn't our class, and that the regular instructor would be back next week. The fact that for one hour, through BODYJAM, she was able to put everything aside and enjoy herself, *that* is what keeps me training for Jam.

On the RPM scene, I covered at a gym at the last minute, and was completely unfamiliar with the sound system, cooling system, and had to rush home from work early to get my cycling gear and hurriedly review some tracks to teach. Whenever I called out for a response from the members, they responded with energy, and when I asked them to turn it up, they did not hold back. It's always challenging being in front of a group of people that don't know you and aren't used to your teaching style, so when the class was finished, I was overwhelmed when first one woman said, "That was *really* good, thank you so much"... and then even more so when another guy said, "Thank you, that was really good! I hope you get to come down and cover again soon."

This is why I do what I do. It's made every other 'issue' that I've got to deal with feel insignificant, because the high of knowing that I can make peoples days, and give them a tough workout can have me floating for days.

It's hard to believe that I'm doing what I'm doing. A couple of years ago, I dreamt about teaching but thought I would never be good enough. This week alone, I taught 4 times, and I'm teaching again in 2 days. That just blows my mind.

I am sorry about the lack of blogging, but just know that it's because I am putting myself out there, and giving myself something I thought I wasn't worthy of... happiness.