Patience is a virtue

Patience is a virtue, so the saying goes. It's a phrase I've often used to gently mock the frustrated or the over-excited, knowing full well that I'm incredibly impatient myself. At least I thought I was. As I get older I find myself slowing down a little bit. Or rather, trying to make life slow down so I can have a longer ride. The knock-on effect must be that I'm mellowing.

I remember attempting to assistant-teach for a previous instructor. I didn't know what to do with myself or my mixed-ability group. How to handle a new beginner with a smart mouth, who insists he's doing everything right and needs to be taught the Michael Flatley steps now please? How to get the prelims and champs, who I'd always danced alongside, to suddenly accept me as a teacher and not think that being put in my group was an excuse for a mess-around. The groups I was given got smaller and smaller and eventually I was phased out. I think I was frightened to show any authority. I felt too shy to stand up in front of them and tell them what to do. In hindsight I was being tested and I failed.

I'm a different person now. I must be. Last night my mixed-ability group told me I was a very good teacher, and very patient. Patient? Me? How did that happen? Where did that come from?

My achilles are aching and will do for some days to come, but I'm taking so much away from those comments. I've still got to learn how to be a teacher, of course, but now I know that I at least have some of the right attributes to build on. I'm learning how to explain things in a hundred different ways until suddenly you see it click in their brain and their feet do the right thing. I'm learning to encourage without being false. I think I'm learning how to make it fun.

I'm starting to think I might be able to do it.