I’ve decided that since it’s the holiday season and this is the time of year for giving, I would start giving back to the community in any way I can. All of November I’ve done small acts of kindness to those who need a reminder that not everything in this world is bad. My goal for November and December is to do at least three acts of kindness a week. So far, I’ve been successful. I’ve documented every week all the kind things I’ve done for others:
Week One: I wrote a letter of encouragement to my supervisor and put it on her car. I started sending ‘Good Morning’ texts to my friend who was having a hard time after a break up. I shared my lunch with a coworker. Week Two: Traded job sites with a coworker because it was raining, and she couldn’t be outside because she has a compromised immune system. Participated in gathering food items for a Thanksgiving basket. Gave a generous tip to my server because she told me she was having a hard week. Week Three: Wrote appreciation letters to members of the armed forces. Joined a secret Santa fundraiser. Donated money to a non-profit. Week Four: Gave a coworker my personal phone number so she could call or text me whenever she needed to talk. I gave strangers compliments. I showed people appreciation by thanking them for everything they have done for me. I let someone into my lane on the freeway. All these acts of kindness not only made the other person feel good, but they made me feel good as well. It was a great way to engage in some self-care. I’m glad I challenged myself to do this. Doing acts of kindness can impact someone’s whole day. I challenge you all to do at least one kind thing a day. It doesn’t matter how small it will make someone’s day so much better. Also pay attention to how you feel too. I promise the feeling you get when you are kind will not disappoint!
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This year in February, we lost my Grandma. I knew once the holidays came my mom would not want to celebrate because it would be the first year without my Grandma. I wanted to distract my Mom from feeling sad, so I decided to do Thanksgiving at the Garcia-Delgado household. I brought up my idea to Anthony, and he was all in. Last year, Anthony's Mom really didn't want to make Thanksgiving Dinner so he mentioned we would have it at our house. Luckily for us, everyone agreed. I was so excited to host Thanksgiving at the house because I wanted both mine and Anthony's families to celebrate a holiday as one family. Anthony and I cleaned our house to make it presentable for our guests. It took a full day to get it ready, but it was totally worth it. Our house finally started to look like a home, and I intend on keeping it this way. I bought everything we needed for the meal, and assigned other things for people to bring. On Thanksgiving Day, my Mom came by the house early to help me prepare the meal. We had a good time cooking together and we enjoyed some wine while catching up. Preparing dinner with my Mom was a great bonding moment. I don't think I have ever felt so close to her. Our guests arrived and we served the meal. We all ate, talked, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company. We all teamed up to put the food away and did the dishes. I am incredibly grateful for our first Thanksgiving as a family. I hope we can do this every year! I really enjoyed it.
Also, I didn't screw up the Turkey! A job well done, if I do say so myself! ;) Zumba, a name I am sure you have heard of before. Latin style dancing to upbeat music that makes exercising fun. Since the first class I ever took, I knew I wanted to be a part of this amazing company. I wanted to become an instructor because one, I loved dancing, and two, because I thought it would be fun job. I took the steps necessary to become an instructor and I got licensed to teach as of July of 2014. Back when I wanted to get my license to teach Zumba I had no idea how much work becoming an instructor would be. All I knew was I wanted to teach dance to a group of people who wanted to stay in shape in a fun way. It all started when I finally decided to get my license. I googled “how to become a Zumba instructor?” I found Zumba’s official website (zumba.com). There is where I found instructor trainings near me. Luckily for me, I found a training in Albuquerque on July 18, 2014. The training cost started at $250. If I had waited to register for the training it would have cost me up to $400. I knew I wanted to teach so I paid the registration and patiently waited for my training. My training day came, and I could not wait to get there. This was something I had wanted to do for a long time and could not believe that it was actually happening. The training is an eight-hour training and we learn the history of Zumba, basic dance steps for each style of dance, and a basic routine to follow when teaching a class, and finally the Zumba Instructor Network (ZIN). Zumba fitness was founded in 1999 by Alberto “Beto” Perez. It’s known worldwide. It’s dance and aerobic movements performed to energetic music. The choreography incorporates different styles of dance such as, hip-hop, salsa, samba, soca, merengue, and mambo. Squats and lunges are included for muscle building. My trainer told everyone about ZIN and its benefits. ZIN is a network for Zumba instructors where we can go to connect with others, go to conferences, get more in-depth trainings, and so much more. ZIN costs $30 a month and is amazing for instructors who have the time to go to all these conferences and trainings. At some of the conferences you can meet Beto Perez! My trainer said that taking a class with Beto is one of the best experiences she ever had. I seriously considered joining ZIN, but I honestly couldn’t afford the monthly fee. When I got my license, I was a full-time student at UNM and was working at Albertsons. I really didn’t have the money to spend especially with my other bills. When I got my license, I was so excited because I could legally teach Zumba fitness! There are a lot of people who teach dance fitness but if they were advertising they were teaching Zumba they could potentially get sued. Zumba is trademarked by Zumba Fitness LLC, and legally you can’t use their name. That was something they made very clear in my training. I couldn’t wait to start teaching, but I hit some road blocks along the way. Before I got my license one of my friends who taught told me she would give me a job if I got my license. Turns out that deal was too good to be true. She informed after I got my license, that to work in her club I had to sell Herbalife, which was something I was not interested in doing. So, my first road block was I had no place to teach. My second road block was Dance Fitness was taking over it would be a hard market to get into. I had no idea when I got my license that it would require so much time and effort. I had to make up dances, find a place to teach, figure out a decent price to charge my class when I found a place to teach, advertise my class, and so much more. Initially I thought it would be a fun hobby, but it turned into a full-time job. I looked around asking community centers if I could teach at their center and I got a lot of rejections. I began to lose hope, when my friend’s mom got in contact with me and gave me some great news. She told me that she was a teacher at Carlos Rey Elementary school and that some of the teachers were interested in taking Zumba classes. She said I was more than welcome to teach at Carlos Rey twice a week. I jumped on that opportunity and began to advertise my classes on social media. I decided that since I was blessed to be able to teach at the school for free I wouldn’t charge my students as much as other dance fitness classes. In 2014, the average cost for a dance fitness class was $6. In those classes you were paying for Herbalife and the class, so I decided to charge half that price because all I was offering was dance not Herbalife. It wouldn’t be fair to charge my students extra money for no reason, so I decided to charge $3 per class. My first class was solely me and 3 teachers. The turn out didn’t disappoint me I was just happy I was finally able to teach. As weeks went by I got more students. Some would come and go, it would disappoint me at times to see them go, but after a while, I realized the ones who stayed were the real MVPs because they were with me from day one. I was the teacher who would lug around two different speakers because some of my songs were on my phone, and some of my songs were on my iPod. Since I was learning the business as I went I didn’t know the life hacks of Zumba instructors. I also wasn’t prepared when it came to money. I never had change and I didn’t have somewhere to put my money. Luckily for me, one of the teachers I taught, gave me a manila envelope to put my money in. That envelope helped organize my money. I also bought a composition notebook to write down the date, who had paid, and who didn’t. It made my business a little more organized, but I still had no idea what I was doing so I winged it most of the time. The one thing that was organized while I taught at Carlos Rey, was the dances. I knew exactly what dances I would teach and in what order every time. Sometimes I would mix it up and take a request from my students. I taught at Carlos Rey for six months, but school got in the way of my teaching. Teaching Zumba, going to school, and working at Albertsons was really taking a toll on me. I didn’t ever have breaks. If I wasn’t doing homework, I was either teaching Zumba or working. I decided that I needed to stop teaching for a while. When I let my class know of my decision they were sad, but they were proud that I acknowledged that I needed a break. They all put in money to buy me a Bluetooth speaker. I couldn’t be more grateful for my class. I feel I made lifetime friends while teaching that class. Becoming a Zumba instructor comes with a huge learning curve. I thought it would be as easy as getting my license then teaching. I was so wrong! I learned quickly that being an instructor had a lot more variables to it. I had a rough start on my road to becoming a Zumba instructor, but it was totally worth it. Now, when I teach classes I know exactly what needs to be done. I don’t currently teach classes publicly, but to this day, I still choreograph new dances, and I am still a licensed instructor, so if any of you would like to take a Zumba class in the privacy of your own home feel free to contact me!
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November 2022
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