Sunday, June 1, 2008

What's that light?

I meant to write about this in my last post but forgot to jot down a note as I usually do during the week to remind myself of things I want to elaborate on as topics pop into my head. I had a run of 3 rough classes in a row again last week. One was Wednesday night and two more came on Thursday. My roommate has insisted since about the 3rd week that your position in the room makes a difference as to what sort of class you will have. The staff has made us rotate positions in the room every day according to a preprinted schedule as there are 12 lines for students in the room and your group is assigned 3 lines each time to set your mat down on. Supposedly, 1/2/3 and 10/11/12 have less airflow and therefore made for a tougher class. Rows 4/5/6 and 7/8/9 have ventilation in the ceiling and can make for a somewhat better class. I had refused to allow this idea to germinate in my mind because I did not want to be defeated before I even entered the room simply because of my groups line assignment! I must admit however that after 8 weeks of two classes a day that I think there is something to it. I had 2 days on 1/2/3 and 1 day on 10/11/12 last week and actually caught myself for the second time since I’ve been here (at least that I can remember) attempting to take it easy during several postures so that I could make it through the entire class. You may remember the other time was just after I had cramped and Luke came and practiced next to me for a posture to “inspire” me. I didn’t need Luke this time to refocus my mind but afterwards I started to think more about this incident. I started to go full out again during that class and that eventually caused a crash and burn situation during that class on Thursday night. Food, electrolytes and a nap started to get me back on track but the point is that I don’t want to fade here in the final week of this experience. I don’t want to just go on cruise control and throw in the towel physically or mentally. Everyone seems to already be in countdown mode as we only have 8 classes left and I mentioned at dinner last night that even though this is the case, I want to go full out just as I have been doing since April 7th regardless of whether or not I crash a couple of more times. I have no idea what my line assignments are for next week, but I want to finish with the same type of integrity that I started this process with regardless of the consequences. A spinning room will only last a couple of hours while a failure to maintain what I have started here may leave a mark that lasts forever. I will encourage my fellow trainees to do the same. I think I’ll wake up early this Monday and greet everyone as they enter the facility and “cheer” them on.