My Jazzercise journey has been a wild and challenging one. It begins with me as a client. I am then recruited, mentored, tested, failed, tested again, until there is ultimate success in becoming an instructor. My center has seen its share of turmoil as there have been three owners in one year. That’s a lot of turnover. That’s a lot of drama.

Through it all, I’ve felt every emotion possible. Elation for passing. Frustration when I failed. Fear when I completely blank out on choreography. Joy when I see a smile on a client’s face during the workout. Satisfaction when I tell a class to correct their form, and they do it!

And now, I feel sadness.

Because after this upcoming Thursday, I won’t be teaching. I have officially been given notice that I’m being let go. This decision was not made because of my performance but due to budgetary and schedule restraints.

Let’s have a moment of silence, please.

Now, there are eight billion ways I can respond to this. I’ve relived them all in my head. The day I was told this news, I had a lingering headache that lasted the entire day. I felt like crying all day long. I received texts and phone calls from my fellow instructors as they became privy to the decision. There were so many questions, many of them still unanswered, many of them will probably never be answered.

But this post is not about me losing my center.

No.

This is about you and me. Whether you’re a fellow Jazzer-sister, a sister in Christ, or just an acquaintance, we have a connection strong enough that you came to read my blog. I thank you for that. I thank you for allowing me to share my journey, my thoughts, and my actions with you.

Life is not fair. It never was. I can’t expect it to be. Like I’ve said in previous blogs, it’s not the events that define us but how we react to them that shine greater and brighter in this very dark and cruel world. That has been my goal. I’m not going to cause drama. I’m not going to talk negatively (at least, I’m really trying not to intentionally). I respect those in authority, even if I don’t agree or understand their decisions.

All of this to say, Thursday, September 26th (a day before my birthday!) at 9:15AM, will be my last class that I teach as an official Jazzercise Tyrone instructor. I am not sure if I’ll come back. I’m not sure what the future holds for me.

But I digress.

Come and celebrate with me! Celebrate?!?! Yes, I wrote that correctly. I celebrate you, my Jazzer-sister, for the love that we have in the program called Jazzercise. We will have fun; we will dance; we will sweat it out together, like it was always intended to be. I may not be staying in Tyrone, but that doesn’t mean that I plan on stopping. I’ve always got a back-up plan brewing. 🙂 If you know me well at all, you know that I’m fighter and not scared of hard work.

So come! Show me some love as I share my last set with you. BTW, it will be recorded as I have to send in my assessment video. What a great way to do a send off! I’d love to share with my training specialist the love that Tyrone gives to its instructors. I just hope I don’t cry on the stage!

Last week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Seattle while my husband was out there for business. One of the greatest perks about being an instructor is that you can take classes anywhere without having to pay. I got to rock it out with Lana at the Mercer Island and W. Bellevue Jazzerise Center out there. I even learned how to use Uber just so that I could go out there! Lana and her (huge) class were so friendly. The west coast definitely knows how to Jazz it out!