I'm not going to lie. I have a few students who I love so much I wish I could go back to high school just so we can be best friends. They wear the cool clothes. They listen to the cool music. They have the coolest Myspace pages. And, well, they're my yoga students, which pretty much makes them the coolest teenagers ever to walk the face of the earth.

But there also have been students who have not made me feel so warm and fuzzy. You know the type. These students stop class to make comments that start out with, "But what if," every five minutes. ("But what if you can't get your balance?" "But what if your arms don't do that?" "But what if your legs are too long?" "But what if it's too hard?") I realize that these comments give me the opportunity to offer more modifications and individualized instruction, and thus are a blessing in disguise, but that doesn't make it less annoying. Then, there are the silent protesters—the girls who sit as far away from me as they possibly can and roll their eyes when I stop to explain the importance of not over-arching the lower back in Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose).

For weeks, maybe even months, I have been feeling extremely guilty that I am not completely in love with all of my students equally. After all, shouldn't I be able to see and understand that this resistance is just a natural reaction to being a little out of their comfort zones? And if I do recognize that, I should like all of my students the same, right? Unfortunately, I'm just human, and this class is a learning experience for me as much as it is for my students.

Recently, though, I've seen a shift in one of my students. In the past, this particular student had objected to nearly everything. I could tell that she struggled physically with some of the poses, and despite my attempts to help her, she was agitated. For a while, I wondered why she kept coming back because she didn't seem to enjoy it at all. Lately, though, she's been different. She hasn't struggled as much. She is beginning to learn to soften in the poses—even the hard ones. Even her demeanor seems to have softened a bit. She smiles. She doesn't interrupt class as much. I'm realizing that I really really like her!