Confessions of a Yoga Teacher
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since I moved from Nashville to a lonely basement apartment outside of Baltimore to embark on a career as a newspaper reporter. Throughout college, I thought reporting was the perfect career for me: creative and challenging with the opportunity to change the world, one reader at a time.
It was a month or so before my college graduation that I started to question my career choice. When my friends asked me where I wanted to work post-journalism school, I was only half-joking when I’d reply, “I just want to teach yoga.” One friend in particular scoffed at me. “You spent four years in college and you’re going to waste your time being a fitness instructor?!”
Umm . . . sort of.
Well, I’m finally a yoga teacher (on paper at least), and I still think I have the opportunity to change the world. This weekend I took my final exam (I passed!) and graduated from my 200-hour teacher training program. It’s scary to think about how much I’ve grown in the last year—the last six months in particular. I’m still not sure if yoga changed me, or if it just helped me to realize I’m not who I thought I was. Either way I’m grateful.
But I digress—you probably want to know about the last weekend of festivities. The test wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. There was a little controversy over the grading system, but everyone who attempted it passed with flying colors. The graduation was also really moving. Everyone wore white, which is customary in Indian graduations, and we bowed to our classmates as they walked past us to get their certificates. We chanted; we hugged; we ate cake. It was a delightful affair.
The downside is now I’m faced with a problem much like the one I was dealing with a year ago. What’s next? While I feel like my first teacher training was a success, I recognize I’m still not really ready to teach a regular class right away. I’ve got so much more to learn. Do I jump into teaching and try to learn as I go (which would mean learning from my inevitable mistakes), or take a more conservative route and put teaching to the back of my mind for a while as I assist more seasoned teachers? Maybe I can do both.
I still haven’t really found the teacher with whom I want to apprentice yet. I work with great teachers every day, but, for some reason, the stars haven’t aligned to present the perfect opportunity yet. I’m taking that as a sign that I’m not ready.
While being patient, however, I do have the opportunity to share my knowledge. In a couple of weeks, I’ll teach a workshop to a group of Oakland high school students for an organization that helps low-income students get into college. I can’t think of a cause that I’m more excited about, and the organization just happens to be headquartered less than half a mile away from my apartment. So it couldn’t have worked out more beautifully. In short, I’ve decided not to go sniffing around for opportunities. I trust that when the time’s right, the teaching opportunities will find me.
No matter what path I choose, I have a feeling I’ll be a teacher trainee for life!
