Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Stepping out of my comfort zone

I hate to do it. I like my comfort zone; it’s very comfy and predictable. It’s perfect. No surprises, a little boring, but that’s OK. I know what to expect. Well, a few months ago I got a wild hair and thought it would be fun to take an adult dance class at Zoë’s dance school. I’m not sure what the heck I was thinking. The choices were Tap, Hip Hop or Belly Dancing. Belly Dancing was a “no” right out of the gate. I’m too uncoordinated and rhythm less for Hip Hop. So, that left tap dancing.

I signed up to keep a spot. When I purchased my tap shoes, I thought, this is it; I really can’t drop out now. Maybe it will be a really small class. Much to my surprise, there were 8 ladies in my class Monday night. These ladies were awesome and many had been tap dancing for years. Didn’t really help my self-esteem any. They were also all tiny and cute, which also didn’t help my self-esteem. It turned out to be a lot of fun and a lot harder than I could have ever imagined. Since I’m a tap newbie (unless you count when I was 7), I have to learn all of the basic steps. Hopefully I won’t slow the class down too much.

What really pushed me over into non-comfy territory were the mirrored walls. You see, I walk by mirrors like they don’t exist most of the time. Other than my daily “mirror check” in the morning, to see if everything matches and looks presentable, I try my best not to look at a mirror for the rest of the day. It was tough, but I managed to find a spot in front of a file cabinet. That lasted for a bit, but I think the dance teacher caught on. She eventually made me move. There were also talks of something called a “dance recital”. I’m thinking I just didn’t hear that part correctly. Now I know that Dance Fever has a recital every year because I’ve been to my share of them for Zoë and Lizzie. What I didn’t realize when I signed up (and paid) for this class, is that the adults participated in the recital as well. That would require someone to push me out of my comfort zone, kicking and screaming. I don’t see that happening. So, they might have to deal with 7 people for their routine. Let’s not get crazy. I can only imagine the outfits they come up with, since these ladies are all under a size 8. We all know whatever they decide on will look ridiculous in my size. Hell, I thought I looked ridiculous in my sweat pants and baggy t-shirt next to these women! (Another reason I was trying to hide by the file cabinet.)

So, as I “step ball changed”, “brush stepped” and “shuffled” (unattractively) for that hour, I thought, maybe it won’t be too bad. I’ll give it another couple of tries. It’s going to require a lot of loosening up on my part. Dan says I need to pull the pole out of my butt. (I’m very comfortable with that pole thank you!) He’s right though. I know that I will never be as graceful, accomplished (or as skinny) as my classmates, but maybe this will be a stepping stone to other activities outside of my comfort zone.

2 comments:

  1. Haha I just love, "I'm very comfortable with that pole thank you!" HAHAHA cracking up! Good for you, I don't think I could go out of my comfort zone to do something like that even though I would love to do it!

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  2. And I thought you were going to say something about pole dancing..... Good for you, Sonya!!! It's very nice in the comfort zone, isn't it? And every once in a while, it's not so bad outside of it too.....

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