Five months have passed since the first night I was introduced to my fellow wannabe yoga teachers. This week concluded the lecture portion of my teacher training. I'll spend the next month assisting teachers, learning CPR, practice teaching, and studying for my final test. In other words, for the next month I'm basically on my own.

I won't be seeing as much of my classmates to casually bounce ideas off of them each week—no more long discussions about yoga philosophy while we wait in traffic on the Bay Bridge during our carpool back to Oakland on Sunday afternoons. I won't be able to stop my teachers mid-sentence to ask them my burning questions about energy channels. It's just me, my notes, my books, my mat—and my computer, where I will still be receiving e-mails about occasional study groups and practice classes.

Even though I can't officially call myself a yoga teacher yet, I can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. After all, I've been in classes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday three weeks each month for five months. And I'm proud to say I almost never cheated on my six-hour-a-week yoga practice commitment. No matter how you look at it, it's been an intense schedule. As happy as I am to have a Friday night all to myself again—I'm so overdue for a pedicure it's not funny, and I can't believe I've missed almost half a year of my guilty pleasure, What Not To Wear—I'm still not sure what to do next. In fact, I'm not completely sure the last five months real at all. Am I dreaming? Am I going to wake up in my bed at my parents' house in Tennessee and think to myself, "Maybe that's a sign that I should immerse myself in yoga"?

Even though my training has been amazing, and I've grown in so many ways, I still know I need a lot more experience before I will feel comfortable teaching my own class.

This is my plan for the next month:

1. Find a willing mentor. I'm going to spend some time really contemplating what kind of yoga I want to teach. Then, I'm going to take classes from as many teachers as I can until I've found an experience teacher I feel comfortable enough around to latch onto. When I've found my teacher, I will absorb as much knowledge from them as I possibly can. I realize this could take years.


2. Volunteer teach. I want to start with beginners, maybe a group who's never heard of yoga. I'm really interested in working with people who might not be able to afford yoga otherwise—seniors and students.


3. Get my name on gym sub lists. Again, I just want more experience so I don't freak when I'm in front of people. I think I might just go to all the gyms in my neighborhood and beg them to let me teach.