Whey!

After joining the gym online I trotted along to pick up my members pack. It was to include a free towel and drink bottle, a folder of bits and pieces, and a tour from one of the friendly staff.

Now, when I joined this gym one of my hesitations was that it’s local. Which is great, right? Except that I live where I work, so inevitably when I’m out and about I bump into families from school. When I’m out walking with Pebble and a little tacker runs over to say ‘hi’ it makes me smile. When I’m at the park and I get a wave, or when I’m in the supermarket and I get a shy smile, I think it’s just gorgeous. But when I’m on the treadmill? Or twisting myself into the approximation of a yoga pose? Um, perhaps not.

Regardless of this I went ahead and bought a membership to our local gym, and thought surely not that many families would use this gym, and who cares anyway? Teachers are people too, right? RIGHT?

I bounced into the gym foyer for my appointment with the ‘membership consultant’, confident in my life-changing decision to improve my life with a gym membership. The friendly girl at the desk telephoned for the consultant to come out the front…. and there she was. One of what I affectionately call one of ‘my parents’. Not MY parents, but the parents of the children I teach. “HI!” she says and we have a quick catch about where we’re at in our lives, how are the kids, etc, etc.

Then we start getting into it. My fitness goals, my diet, my weight. It was a little bit… awkward. At first. But then it was fine. Really! Pretty normal, actually. Because teachers are people. Also, I’m not just a teacher. When I’m not at school I’m anything but a teacher! I’m ME.

That’s that then. The inevitable has happened, and it really wasn’t so bad. We’ll all be there for the same thing, and it must be better to be seen at the local gym than the local chippie week after week.

Do you go to the gym? Or the chippie?