Young man, there’s no need to feel down…..
Matt and I are now proud members of the Newton YMCA!
Let me tell you, I am very satisfied with my membership thus far. Besides being a fraction of the monthly cost of a regular gym, the facilities are new, clean, and fantastic. All of the cardio machines (treadmills, elipticals, etc) have televisions attached to them…they get a ton of stations, and they also play DVDs. (As well as audio CDs and MP3 CDs) As I briskly walk on the treadmills, I am also going through the Freaks & Geeks DVDs.
Right now my exercising is fairly low impact, because this is the first time I’ve regularly exercised since my junior year of high school. (Eight years ago!) And let’s face it…for me, high school gym class was a period alotted largely for gossiping, NOT exercising.
Gym class was very traumatizing for me, ever since elementary school. I am very short, and I was always the tiniest kid in my class. Sometimes my gym teacher would use me as an example of someone who could not sufficiently participate in a given exercise, due to my height. “And everyone will do this…well, except for Kristine because she’s very, very short.”
And not only was I SHORT, but I was SLOW. Even the really chubby kids could outrun me. Whenever we played kickball, everyone knew that I couldn’t kick the ball very hard so the outfield would all move in really close. Playing freeze tag would give me panic attacks because I’d be “frozen” for 90% of the game.
I was in a “special gym” class in kindergarten because physically, I could not keep up with my peers. (Or tie my shoes for that matter…I think I got a “U” for unsatisfactory in that category on my kindergarten report card) My motor skills are still poor, as are my shoe-tying skills. I usually wear clogs whenever possible to avoid tying my shoes!
So, it never got better. My most embarrassing moment was in 9th grade gym, step aerobics…after forty minutes of step step step, up down up down, I started hyperventilating. My mom had to pick me up and they needed to get a wheelchair to bring me to her car. Mortifying. I guess this was karma for gossiping non-stop in gym class, because I’m certain that I was the object of some gossip after this happened — because it happened not once, but TWICE!
So, athletics was never my strong point although I was a decent tennis player. Besides playing tennis every now and then and walking places, I’ve been very idle over the past few years. And I no longer have that teenage metabolism that once allowed me to consume as much spaghetti and grilled cheese as I wanted. So we joined the Y. :-)
And I can do it all at my own pace. No “special gym class”, no wheelchairs, no being picked last for kickball, and no more being an example of someone who can’t properly exercise. I’ll be walkin’ on the treadmill, watchin’ “Freaks & Geeks”. :-)
Filed under Greater Boston (General), My Life, Things to do in the Boston Area, the gym |12 Responses to “Young man, there’s no need to feel down…..”
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It reminds me of the greatest halftime speech in the history of junior high basketball…the coach pointed to me and said, “Look at him. What he lacks in skills, he makes up for in hustle. Usually.” That still cracks me up.
I am forever grateful that I went to high school in New York City when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy, because that meant they laid most of the gym teachers, so our gym classes had like 200 people in them, which meant most of us could spend the entire period in the bleachers doing not much of anything, rather than having to, ugh, climb ropes or play dodgeball or take showers. Alas, I then went to a college that forced us to take two gym classes - the only time I’ve ever actually broken something was when the basketball teacher thought it would be a good idea to teach us how to pass basketballs, so he tossed one to me and, of course, it bent my finger back far enough to break it.
Oy, they laid OFF most of the gym teachers! :-).
Ouch!!! That sounds awful!
I landed on a small girl in gym because it was raining and we were all forced to exercise inside. Most of the boys played basketball and most of the girls played volleyball, with OVERLAPPING courts. I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later - too bad it was me squishing an 80 pound girl. Nothing like getting yelled at by a group of angry preteen girl mob :(
I still think there was more laying by gym teachers than we even know.
:)
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Awww, Walt. Haha. Well, the courts shouldn’t have been overlapping!
Volleyball was another gym-related activity that made my stomach churn. The kids were VICIOUS!
I actually liked phys ed class until 6th grade, which was when we were required to change into school-issued gym uniforms and had to take a shower after gym class (in grades K-5 we could wear our “regular clothes” for gym and didn’t have to take a shower). I hated the whole production of changing my clothes, getting sweaty and disheveled, and then pretending to take a shower (I refused to actually be naked in from of my classmates, so I’d go into the shower stall, turn on the water, and then stand just outside the shower in the little changing cubicle and put my school clothes back on in there). Gym class disrupted the whole rhythm of my school day…I loved non-gym days, I felt so free! I hated volleyball, too, I could never get the fuckin’ ball over the net, LOL, and I also dreaded rainy days/wintertime ’cause the default activity was dodgeball. What a nightmare.
Have you ever seen Freaks & Geeks? There’s an episode where the kids don’t want to take showers and they made failed attempts to “fake shower” by wetting their hair…
We never took showers after gym, but there were some really creepy looking showers that probably hadn’t been used since 1975…
just to let you know I got an F in gym class during the 9th grade because of principle. I refuse to swim on my rag.
[...] I started exercising about a year ago, as chronicled here in my blog, which was an amazing feat because previously I hadn’t exercised since high school. After I stopped playing tennis and participating in mandatory gym class (which I utilized mainly to gossip in while doing the minimum required to get a decent grade), I saw no reason to exercise. But a year ago, it all changed and I realized that I had to start exercising, not only to watch my weight but also for my health. And participating in regular exercise has helped me feel better and build my immune system up. [...]
Keep it up (like I do :-)) Great site - loved the bit about yourselves.