Speaking of anniversaries...

I just realized that my Bikram yoga "anniversary" must be right around now. I have no idea of the date, but I'm pretty certain that it was the first or second week of June, in 2004. Damn... five years?! When did that HAPPEN??

I certainly wouldn't say I've been practicing for five years, but as Diane says, your first class is your first class!

So many people have these great dramatic stories about their first classes. Mine was not very dramatic. I was away from home, doing a summer internship in eastern Washington state, and I was still hardcore into ballet. I was 19. A girl who I worked with said, "oh, you should come to yoga with me, you'll be good at it." It was summer and I was in the middle of the desert and I needed something to do to keep in shape. It was about 100 degrees outside, so I didn't really register the fact that it was an intentionally HOT yoga until maybe the 2nd or 3rd class. I just thought they didn't have AC. In my very first class, there was this older Indian (?) guy teaching, and he kept saying to me, "good, easy for you, now lock your knees," or "good, easy for you, now put your elbows on the floor." I woke up AMAZINGLY sore the next day, and all I could think was, "Dammit, Mr. 'Easy-For-You'!! That doesn't feel like it was easy at all!!" I remember that I liked it a lot and I asked tons of questions about the postures after class. I went a few times a week for the rest of the summer, then went back to Boston, and didn't think of it again for months until another friend brought me to a class, and I said, "oh yeah, I've done this stuff before..."

A few years later circumstance opened up, I got really into it, and the rest is history.

I would never, in a million years, have anticipated that I would end up ditching ballet and falling for yoga head-over-heels. If anyone had told me what would happen, I would have been horrified. I wouldn't have understood.

I am so grateful for the way things happened!!