About six years ago, we were all isolating to keep ourselves and our communities safe during COVID. Even though it was for a good reason, let’s face it, many of us started going a little bit stir crazy. Personally, even though I love my family, I was getting a little tired of seeing my husband’s face and the walls of our apartment everyday with no reprieve. I had to get out, but I wanted to make sure that I stayed safe about it.

I had heard of Aerial Dance’s studio in De Pere, and even went to an open house before, so I decided to look into their classes and membership options. The studio seemed very clean and like they were committed to the safety of their staff and students from what I found online, so I decided to go for it. Before I started at the studio, I think the last time I actually worked out consistently was my senior year of high school. That was about three years prior, so I had the base level build stamina and muscle. I think my first class was hammock fit, so imagine the general dying feeling after that class, paired with a face mask on top. To say I was questioning my life choices would be putting it mildly. After dragging myself back to my car and refusing to move after I got home, I told myself that I should try more classes, because they couldn’t all be as hard as a conditioning class.

Well, that was wrong; HOWEVER, the classes ended up being so much fun, even if I did come home drenched in sweat. I had finally found a way to workout that I enjoyed, and I was excited to keep coming back and watch myself progress. I remember seeing students that had been with the studio longer do scissor hip keys from the ground, or mount the hoop without struggling, and making those moves my goals that I wanted to achieve in the next few months. I noticed that even if I was out of breath and sticky from climbing, it was worth it for how cool it looked to have an even double foot lock seven feet off the ground.

Now, a few years after I started, I am so thankful that I took a chance on something new just to get out of the solitude of my home. Through writing this, I think it’s important for us to remind ourselves that even if we are not successful with a more advanced trick that we are working on, we are doing moves that looked intimidating or impossible to us when we were first starting our Aerial Dance journey.