Spinning

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning I teach a spinning class at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It's a college course believe it or not! These kids get to choose form over 400 wellness courses that include Hip-Hop, Cardio Kick, Fencing, Beer tasting, you name it. RIT is a gorgeous campus with a gorgeous athletic facility. A pool to die for. And I get called "Professor Eggers" which I hate by the way.

Each trimester I get a new class, and each class is very different. My first trimester there class was at 9am and getting anyone to make eye contact with me was a challenge. Second trimester class changed to 11am and it was a small fun group of kids. Third trimester same time, and the kids were great..... except one. This guy drove me nuts. He hated spinning. He would say it out loud. He would complain that spinning interfered with his Frisbee training... and he was serious.

Now this trimester I have 31 of the coolest kids on the face of the earth. There are a few form previous trimesters even. They scream, they answer, they have fun. They are so enthusiastic. This morning this guy who would appear to have been some sort of high school varsity athlete in his day came up to me after class. He shook my hand, introduced himself and state dhow much he loves spinning. He was in fact an injured lacrosse player interested in getting into road riding. He loved the music, loved the class. Another guy gave me great music suggestions. They make me feel young(er). They make me feel cool.

I am cool to the college kids!!!

The best part is this..... RIT has a school for the deaf. This trimester I have five deaf students and an interpreter! It's opened up an entirely new world for me. What's spinning without music and how on god's green earth does this woman take what I say and put into sign language????

She does it beautifully, and she dances around to boot.

At a time when I needed it most, I found the most amazing group of kids. Eager, full of life, full of happiness. They don't even realize the gift they are giving me each and every single day that they show up. They climb with intensity in their eyes and fire in their hearts. They scream out loud in the middle of a 28 minute climbing set.

It's funny because just when you need it, life will somehow find a way to give you exactly what you need. Sometimes you don't' realize it is what you need, you look away and then life has to get your attention by dropping a brick on your foot. Or in my case on my head.

Thus far this trimester (all 3 weeks of it) have been the medicine I have needed. This morning I brought them bagels and you would have thought I would have paid their $45,000 per year tuition they were so grateful. Maybe they don't eat because they are paying that tuition.

So this morning we rode, we rode hard and we rode well. We rode as a team and they smiled. The ones who couldn't hear the music, in a way I envied them the most. Truly and honestly they were in the perfect place.