All Walks of Life

Today was the first day of class.  Pretty much all that we did was find out there are 30 people in our class (HUGE!!) and looked at our first semester workload.  While the immense amount of work made my eyes practically pop out of my head, what really struck me today were the people who were to become our new "dysfunctional family".

I gotta say, the incredible diversity of the people in the class just boggles my mind.  There are the stories that you expect to hear.  There is a woman who has worked at a pizzeria owned by her father.  Two women used to teach Kindergarten.  There is a bartender looking for another part-time job.  A man used to be an engineer before getting a severance package and now needs something to fill the hours.  Many women have children who have just now left the house and they need a trade.

And then there were the stories that touched me.  One man is from Peru and has been in the USA 8 years and still has great difficulty speaking English.  In his town/tribe (I couldn't catch which type of community he was from) he was the Healer and wanted to learn the USA's version of healing (without going thru years of medical school).  A young woman had no previous interest in massage therapy found when she woke one morning, the muscles in half her face would not move.  The doctors could not explain it and the only treatment she received which worked was multiple sessions of facial massage.  From that, she wants to learn the trade and give others the opportunity she got.  And meeting her today, you would never know.

I don't know these people well, but these were the stories they introduced themselves with.  It makes you think... if you have to pretty much summarize yourself in under two minutes to 30 people and the teachers who will be working with you everyday, what would you say?  And I did have to think about it very quickly because I did have to do just that.  :)  By the way, I am the only one in the class with a background in the arts.  The scales tipped very heavily to the "I worked in an office until they laid me off and now I'm looking for something new" side.

For the next post, I should hopefully have some type of technique to discuss or some interested fact about the human body (memorizing every bone, muscle, and nerve in the body... SCARY!).  Well, until then... stay limber!