Teaching Recap: March 2019

All good things must come to an end. A student said that to me at the close of a Mommy + Baby class this past month. She had reached the end of her maternity leave, reached her last postnatal class, and was getting ready to go back to work, full time. She made the remark with a smile and in good spirits, but it made me a little melancholy (and not just because a mere eight or ten weeks of maternity leave is a crime).

This month, my yoga home, O2 Yoga, announced publicly that its Cambridge location would close at the end of April. I first joined that Cambridge community the very month the studio opened, way back in the fall of 2012. I’ve lived a lot of life since then: left three apartments, weathered the end of two relationships, navigated the loss of three grandparents, and made my way through so many bumps and bruises―as well some amazing highs and joys. And that space was always there. I’ve left so much energy, and tears, and peals of laughter, and sweat, and smiles inside those walls. The community in Cambridge (sometimes referred to as “the bunker” by the staff) made me feel empowered to leave a long-held job (with a pension plan, and paid time off, and benefits) to pursue yoga teaching. And it a few short weeks, it’ll be gone.

The studio in Somerville will live on, but losing Cambridge is hitting me hard. I haven’t figured out how to replace the hole this closing leaves my schedule, my wallet, or my heart. All good things must come to an end. Fine. It still hurts.

March by the numbers:

•  51 classes
•  476 students
•  57+ hours
•  9 locations

Student feedback (still sweet and silly):

• “Someday I’ll be able to just sit up in class.”
• “I climbed a couple 4,000-foot peaks this weekend, and although I was sucking wind, my legs felt great, and I’m positive that’s because of all the quad and glute work you make us do in class.”
• “The floor smelled great tonight.”
• “Where are my legs right now?”
• “I feel like I’m going to explode, so if you could fix that, it’d be great.”
• “This was so magical.”
• “I come for the yoga. I stay for the vocabulary.”
• “That was a proper Power class.”
• “Your classes are always seamless.”
• “They asked me if we could do a special class [for the corporate client] and I said, ‘every class with Jill is a special class.’ That’s what I said!”