The road to training - "This is not a test!"

Uh oh, here she goes, talking about herself again...

Last winter, I spent a few weeks convinced that I was ready to drop out of grad school and go to teacher training in the Fall.  This obviously did not happen, for a number of reasons.  (That session is going on right now.)  But I believed it strongly enough that I told a number of studio owners about it (or rather, I told basically all the studio owners I know), and I told my mother about it, and I didn't renew my housing contract for the fall.

But as it turned out, that one wasn't "it."

I was rather embarrassed about getting everyone all excited and then having to say, "ummm, nevermind guys, just kidding, not doing it, sorry about that..."

I decided that next time around, I would have to make sure I was securely past the "point of no return" before I went off and told the whole world that I am going to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training.

Guess what?

As they say... this is not a test.

As in: I talked to the department assistant for my graduate program about a week and a half ago and told her that I wasn't going to complete the Ph.D.  She said, "Well, do you have enough units for a Master's?"  I told her I didn't think that was possible.

As it turns out, once I finish this quarter I WILL have enough units for a Master's degree, as long as I do one extra paper for the one class I'm taking to bump it up from 3 units to 4 units.  All I have to do is finish my coursework, finish the research paper that I was already working on, and write up a 10 page thesis paper based on my existing work (which I can essentially do in an hour of cutting and pasting from my other work.)  And then I will be able to graduate.  In 5 weeks.  Well, 4 weeks and 6 days, now that it's past midnight.

Whoa.  That's it?!

In the last week I've talked to my advisor, my supervisor, the department head, the grad division, the registrar, etc, and told them that I'm going to terminate with a Master's and leave in December.  It's shocking how understanding everyone is.  They basically all said, "Hey, it's your life.  Go, be free, be happy."  There was one person - the one I've worked the most closely with - who was quite sad.  He was the hardest one to tell.  He's been so sweet to me.  But he understood completely, and quickly realized that this was a great decision for me.  He said he envied me a little.  I promised him a free yoga class this summer, and bought him a coffee and a cookie to help with his shock.  (Very Jewish of me, buying off my guilt with food!!)  The paperwork is mostly done; it should be finished by the end of this week.  Five more weeks of working my butt off, and then I am done done done with formal education.

And then, come April, I get to embark on an entirely new sort of education...

This is the real one, and it feels good.

On a regular basis, I get asked by strangers at the yoga studio whether I'm a teacher.  By "regular", I mean at least once a week, occasionally every day.  Once I walked into the lobby, and a woman signing in at the desk said, "Hey, I had a dream last night that you were my yoga teacher!"  No lie.  I didn't even know her name.  This stuff kills me.  But when I've been asked this question recently, I've stopped saying "No, I wish."  Instead I'm saying, "I'm going to the next training and I will be teaching this summer."  I love this.

Testing 1 2 3... this is not a test!