When the pandemic hit I was in my sophomore year. Like many other college students I was sent back to my hometown, I finished my semester on-line, and was left waiting for the world to return back to “normal”. May rolled around and I felt as though my life was at a standstill. We were restricted by the lockdown and I was able to work at my part-time job at a coffee shop, but every day felt like the last. I was stuck in a monotonous loop of going to work and returning home just to binge watch another show on Netflix or complete another jigsaw puzzle with my family. My life was lacking a challenge and I needed to find a new passion to sink my teeth into.

Since freshman year of college I had been taking cardio kickboxing classes at the Rec and it quickly became part of my weekly routine at school. I had started to form a friendship with the instructor, Jackie, and she introduced me to Kick It By Eliza, the company with which she received her certification. Eliza, the founder of the company actually graduated from UMass in 2013 and has been growing her business ever since. By the time the pandemic hit I had been following Eliza’s instagram account for a few months and saw her posting about their certification workshops, which at the time were only offered in-person during specific times of the year. Getting my Kick It certification had been in the back of my mind leading up to the pandemic, but I always found an excuse to not pursue it: going in person would be tough to fit in my schedule, I don’t have any professional training in fitness and exercising, I don’t have what it takes to teach a room full of people. All of these doubts swirling in my head were finally squashed once the pandemic hit and Kick It By Eliza transitioned to a virtual platform for their classes and certification. When I first saw that they would be offering their certification on-line it felt like the universe was telling me I had run out of excuses, and I signed up for the certification. 

During the certification workshop we discussed the exact doubts and fears that I had when it came to becoming an instructor. Hearing the other women and Eliza herself open up about imposter syndrome, beauty standards in the fitness industry, and other anxieties made me feel much more comfortable and confident. Being a group fitness instructor has been a dream of mine since I was in high school and I put off that dream for so long by asking myself “why me?” instead of “why not me?”. 

Fast forward to my senior year and I am now an instructor at the Rec. It’s crazy to see this journey come full circle right where it all began. My favorite part about being an instructor is making connections with my participants and providing them a safe space to relieve their stress. I even had a freshman in one of my classes that was curious about becoming an instructor and I told her that my only regret is that I wish I had done it sooner. Being part of the community of other group fitness instructors at UMass has given me so much confidence and support and has helped me grow as a person immensely.

This entire process has helped me realize that oftentimes the biggest thing holding us back from achieving something is ourselves.”Why not me?” has been my mantra since the pandemic and I hope you start to tell it to yourself as well.