A bunch of words written by Nick:
Recently, I started taking dance lessons. I’m ok admitting that. They’re Lindy Hop lessons and in fact, the lessons were my idea. For my girlfriend’s birthday I decided to get us dance lessons as if that was something she either wanted or would enjoy, but it seemed like a fun thing we could do together. And for the most part, besides being a pretty weak birthday present, that has been true. We have both enjoyed dance lessons and frankly, now that these dance lessons are coming to an end, I think we might be a little sad to see them go. We had a good time and I think there’s a fairly good chance we might keep dancing
HOWEVER!
While I might seem super outgoing at November Project, I am not particularly good at operating out of my comfort zone. November Project is my comfort zone, somehow dance lessons most definitely are not. So each week Wednesday night rolls around and it’s time for dance lessons, and each week I try to find a way out of said lessons. Then each week my lovely girlfriend Jana talks me into it with the pleasant reminder that I tried to back out last week and It turned out I had fun. Oh, that’s right.
If Jana wasn’t there, there’s a %200 chance I would have quit after one Lindy Hop lesson, because I hate looking like i’m a rookie. I get uncomfortable when i’m bad at stuff and frankly, being uncomfortable is just plain uncomfortable.
Quick Pivot:
I’ve been thinking about dance lessons all day because I had one of those “other people are awesome mornings” when I watched a whole lot of people crush their P.R Goals (Also because it’s Wednesday and i’m already thinking of my reason to ditch class). In particular, at the 5:30 am workout I jogged for a little with my friend Neha, before she told me that her goal this morning was to hit 4 at P.R day. I told her she could definitely get it but then didn’t see her again for about 15 minutes. By that point we were down to the wire and Neha was just finishing up 3.9 when I caught her with about 2 minutes to go. I won’t get into details, but with Kay counting down from ten seconds Neha made it to the first set of steps, finishing her goal for the day in all sorts of style. If you haven’t met Neha, she’s Madhuri’s roommate, another positive force at November Project.
After the workout I couldn’t stop thinking about Neha’s final push to get to 4. That moment made me feel really awesome and I think Neha would say the same. But there were all these moments that lead up to that moment that made it special. Maybe Madhuri had to wake her up to get there ( or vise-versa), maybe a bunch of people cheering her on helped her get there, maybe Monica working her tail off at 5:30 gave us all a little extra energy.
At the end of the day, we don’t get special moments, new friends or shiny p.rs without showing up in the first place. A lot of the time just showing up can be uncomfortable. We ask you to hug and high five, be loud and work hard. All of that might not sound awesome first thing in the morning. November Project isn’t a trip to the movies; you don’t get to sit in the dark, not talking to anyone, eating your favorite snack.
Going into the winter months our workouts are going to be dark, the mornings are going to be cold and every great moment is going to be a little harder to earn. However, you don’t get to watch someone set a goal at 5:30 am and reach it at 6:10 if you stay home. We’re going to keep working hard to make November Project as exciting and dynamic as possible, but at the end of the day if you’re not there to create those moments, they won’t ever happen. The best part of my day, possibly my week was created because Neha hit 4 and woke herself up so damn early this morning.
Long story short, apparently you don’t get better at dance by ditching it, no matter how much you might want to. So, maybe i’ll skip the excuses tonight and just see what happens.
As always, take big bites out of life,
Nick
Reminder: We’re on the road Friday, not at Patterson Park. Stay tuned!
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