It's supposed to be!

I was going to save this anecdote for my Mother's Day post, but I had such a vivid recollection of it last night that I have to include it now.

When I was little we weren't allowed to quite anything.  NOTHING.  You signed up and you basically were in it for life (probably why I play volleyball through college).  My mom, being the avid swimmer, made us all take swimming lessons with the hope that one of us would carry on the Zaprowski family tradition.  A side note: this attempt was a complete failure, given that I can barely stay afloat in the deep end without swallowing a gallon of water and Jon swims like Diddy Kong.

One night at swim practice I was trying (as usual) to communicate that I hated any kind of movement at all and just wanted to sit on the heater, read a book, and eat a stick of margarine.  I got to the end of the pool after about 50 laps (realistically, it was probably one) and looked up at my mom.

"Mom," I whined.  "I want to get out.  This is hard."

She looked at me, vengeance and rage boiling up from her toes straight into her eyes.  "Hard?"  She barked.  "It's SUPPOSED to be hard!"  Then she threw her clipboard in the pool next to me, splashing water up my nose and nearly drowning me.

Maybe that's not exactly how it happened, but it's how I like to remember it.  It was a pretty defining moment for me.  What reminded me of it was my hot yoga class the other night... also known as an hour long wet t-shirt contest with stretching.  I had an unfortunate position by one of the heaters and to date it was the hottest class I've ever been to.  Uncomfortably hot.  Unbearably hot.  At the end I was just standing there.  Not in child's pose, showing that I was struggling and needed a break.  Just standing hunched over, breathing heavily through my mouth and thinking, "I want to get out.  This is hot."  That's when I had the image of my yoga instructor, reincarnated into a weird hybrid between my mom and dad, coming over and barking in my face, "Hot?!  It's SUPPOSED to be hot!"

And he would be right.  After all, it is hot yoga.  And most things- at least most things that are worthwhile-are supposed to be hard.