To the Student Who…
(a post about the struggle)
To the student who’s trying a new skill, and it’s not coming easily. When you feel the heat rise in your neck and cheeks, and your eyes start to tear up, and your world shrinks in to include just you, the silk and your struggle:
I see you, and I know your discomfort is temporary.
If I’ve taught you for a while and I know you’ve got this, I may let you be. I trust you to find the line between pushing yourself and calming yourself. If I don’t know you well, I may approach you and pull you out of the tiny world where the only thing is that you CAN’T DO THE MOVE.
I may tell you that in my first silks class ever, I cried. I couldn’t even climb. I was incredibly frustrated and disappointed in myself. I had come in with visions of effortlessly floating, of amazing the instructor with my innate grace. I left with puffy eyes and a snot-headache.
And then I came back. And I still couldn’t climb. And then I came back, and then I came back and then I came back. And slowly, almost imperceptibly, I grew into the aerialist I am today. There are moments of epiphany ahead, and moments when something that you expect to defeat you comes naturally. This moment doesn’t cancel out those moments. This moment fuels them.