The Hows and Whys I JOINED Zumba with Tina...

 by  Jackie G.

It all started during the spring time of 2016. There were four of us moms who thought it'll be great to have some sort of activity to keep ourselves  in  shape.        We thought  Zumba  would  be  a  good choice so we planned to follow videos    on youtube. But it seems like whenever we get together to exercise, we would  end  up  just  sitting and  chatting.  Kathy  thought  it's better to have someone  lead  us, someone  who'd  push us  so  we  can't  procrastinate  anymore.  She mentioned  Tina,  a  common  friend  of ours  who  we  knew   was   a    fitness  enthusiast. Next thing we knew, Tina got herself a license and she is an official  ZIN  (Zumba  Instructor).  The  date  was set  for our first session and I became apprehensive  in  joining  a  bigger group  to  do  Zumba. I did Muay Thai in the  Philippines   for  two  years  and  back  then, I  thought  Zumba  was  for senior      citizens only  (peace guys).  As the date came nearer, I started to come up with excuses  on  why   I  can't  make  it. But then, Tina  said she  could come to one      of  our  houses and do our first session at the basement. So my excuse of  not  being able to drive to her place went out of the window, I had no choice but to    go. The venue for our first session was in Mahogany SE, there were about  7 of  us.  I felt self conscious because I wasn't really used to dancing and I tend to go    to the  opposite way  everybody  else  was  going.  At  the  end  of the session  I thought  it  was  quite  fun  and the idea of making  myself do better  next  time challenged me.  The  second  session  was  not as hard for  me anymore. I  also thought  that  doing  Zumba with your friends  is  more  fun,  for  we  just   laugh off the mistakes we made. Tina encouraged everyone to just keep on moving to the beat. I like the choreography and songs Tina made, it's  not  boring or corny.    I also saw  how  dedicated Tina was in coming every week in the SE with her big speakers to teach Zumba.  I guess  it  rubbed off on me because I  found myself attending as often as I can too. Back then, Tina's  basement can't accommodate  all of us so there were 2 different groups in her sessions, the SW group and  the  SE group. We started to get bigger in numbers too. After a reno in her basement, Tina  had  merged  the  2  groups  into one.  We  became a big  Zumba with Tina family and the rest is history as they  would  say. Losing weight was a  bonus too.  I  get  to have fun while losing weight,  gain friends and  gained more  confidence.  I no  longer  think  Zumba was  an  activity for seniors,  but  it's  a  fun  activity  for everyone no matter how young or old you are.