10 Minutes in Hell

I finally lost the game of Russian roulette that I was playing with my group exercise class. Yes, this means I had to get up in front of class and teach for 10 minutes. Ten whole excruciating minutes. I guess if you think about it, I didn’t really lose, but more like surrendered. I could of gotten out of it again if I wanted to, but I felt that I needed to do it; not only for the sake of my grade, but for the sake of being able to say I did it and overcame one of my greatest nightmares. She passed around a sheet of paper for those of us that had not yet done our aerobic demo. We were to sign our names so she knew who was left to go. I watched the piece of paper slowly get passed from person to person, until I finally saw it reached the guy next to me. ( I swear he is Fogell from Superbad ). I was next. Should I sign it? I could get out of this if I don’t sign it. She would never know.

I saw McLovin sign his name on the paper and then look at me and say “do you need to sign it?” “Yes”, I said hesitantly as I grabbed the piece of paper and pencil. Hands shaking, and sweat pooling I signed my name at the bottom of the list. I felt as though I had just signed myself up for a voluntary beheading.

The teacher continued her usual morning blabbering until she finally ran out of things to say and we got to doing our demos. One after one, people went and I could feel that my turn was getting closer and closer. My head began to ache, and my muscles were so tense I felt like I was being squeezed by a python. 

Finally it was McLovins turn and I was next. I was really going to have to do it this time. There was no escaping. Why did I sign that piece of paper?! What do I do? Pass out? Play dead? Pretend I already went and signed the paper on accident? Hmmm no I suck at lying that won’t work. My only option was to just do it. <---insert Nike product placement here. Just do it.

The teacher blew her whistle signaling McLovin that his 10 minutes was up and then shouted my name over the music. My heart was beating so hard that I probably could of just used it for a beat instead of the music. I walked over to my backpack, grabbed my trusty Tune Belt and headed up to the front to get fitted with the microphone.

The instructor quickly handed me the microphone while she babbled on about the time and other various subjects. It was surprisingly calming though because she was so non-shalant about the whole ordeal. When she saw that I was struggling to figure out how the microphone was supposed to go she asked

“Haven’t you used it before?”

“No.” I said with a nervous laugh.

“OH! That’s right, your one of the ones that cheated!”

“Yea…”

Darn she knew the whole time?

She continued to fit me with the microphone, awkwardly pulling at my belt getting a little closer than I would of liked. “Alright, go for it. Don’t freak out.”

I slowly walked to the front of class, looking in the mirror making sure the microphone was properly positioned on my head. I remembered that I had a dream like this before…only this time I had clothes on so that was a good start. Here goes nothing.

“Hi, my name is Amber…can you please start the music?”

The teacher cheerfully started the music and I began my demo. After I got moving, and nestled my way into a grove it ended up being a lot easier than I thought, and it didn’t even seem like the longest 10 minutes of my life. All the guys ( I am only 1 of 3 girls ) were really supportive and started clapping half way through. They knew I was hating life at the moment and was really thankful for their support.

Finally I heard the sweet sound of the teacher’s whistle. My time was up. I did it. It was over. I walked over to the teacher and she gave me my review. To my surprise she said that I actually did pretty good. That I counted in all the right places, that she could hear me clearly, ( which no one ever says…I suppose the microphone helped me out in this area ), and that the class was able to follow me really well.

I was on cloud 9 when it was over. I couldn’t believe I actually did that…not to mention I have been dreading that experience from the first day of class. Unfortunately that won’t be my last time having to do that…now on to step aerobics…Ugh.

Wow this is a long post. My apologies…