Category: The Student Perspective

Pivots and Head Congestion

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Recovery from the flu has been frustratingly slow. My energy is still not at 100%. I go to bed around 8:30pm. I have this lingering congestion in my head and chest that refuses to leave, no matter how much medicine I throw at it. And I have developed painful knots in my neck and shoulder, a combination of coughing for over two weeks and working in my lesson on Tuesday as hard as I was two months ago, without consideration of the fact that I haven’t been working my body that hard for two months.

But my hip connection is feeling solid!

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A Thank-You Note to 2016

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2016 was a rough year. Just in the last week, the world lost two amazing women, who were also two of my favorite Hollywood actors. Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were an inspiration to me. Princess Leia showed us that we can be strong and feminine at the same time. The way Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds’ character in Singin’ in the Rain) teases Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) as she’s driving him to Beverly Hills is my go-to when I’m searching for my Foxtrot character. I love the way she playfully puts him in his place and firmly stands up for herself, despite the fact he is a famous (and therefore intimidating) celebrity.

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Energy and Motivation

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In the Facebook group related to the Momentum ’17 challenge I’m doing, someone asked how many people were holding down a job while also trying to build their business, and besides the obvious time challenge, what their biggest challenges were related to that situation. If I haven’t already explained, this challenge is for people working on building their own brand/business, a.k.a. entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is starting to feel like a cliché to me as so many people reject the normal way of making money (i.e., get a job with an already-established company) and strike out on their own. It’s funny to think that being “self-employed” or an “entrepreneur” used to be a euphemism for “can’t get a job.” Now it’s all the rage! I’m not one to jump on trends (I frequently avoid them on principle), but I do want to be able to eventually support myself with my writing and dancing, and there’s no time like the present to start thinking of the business side of things. And when it’s a free challenge, why not!

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A Sunday Morning Waltz

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It’s been two and a half weeks since my last dance lesson, which was also the last time I danced ballroom at all. Being busy with other things, like driving across country, Thanksgiving, blog- and book-related work, and the day job (yes, still working the day job!), has helped keep the withdrawal symptoms tolerable. The Zumba game has helped too; I think it’s going to be my ticket to avoiding too much holiday weight gain in the next month. But finally, this morning, I broke out my ballroom practice shoes.

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Settling In and Road Trip Reflections

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Hello from Pennsylvania!

I hope all of my American readers had a lovely Thanksgiving. I got to see a lot of family that I haven’t seen in a long time, so that was nice. And yes, I ATE! We’re still eating turkey leftovers. Turkey on salad, turkey quiche, turkey omelets, turkey noodle soup…you have to get creative with the leftovers! What’s your favorite version of leftover Thanksgiving?

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