Personal Narrative: My Body Pump

My palms itched as a trickle of sweat dripped down my lower back. My stomach churned from the rich coffee that I drank that morning. I could feel the oxygenated blood rushing to the surface of my skin. With a beet red face and with muscles aching, I lifted the weights higher and higher. “Body Pump” is a specially designed class for weight lifting and cardio workout. I still remember the first time in the class; I picked up the smallest weights of two and a half pounds. I was sore with screaming muscles for the next three days. The feeling afterward was energizing as sensations were flowing to all the muscles of my body. I returned to the class and advanced from the smallest weights to the medium sized ones. As I travel through the path
It was my second year in Bais Yaakov and as a ninth grader I was still trying to fit in. Previously, I acted the way I preferred. Yet, in ninth grade I felt pressured to do what others were doing and forgot to think of what I sought to do myself. Personally, the transition from eighth grade to ninth grade was the hardest of them all. I was placed in one of the most difficult Chumash classes’.The debates between my teacher and I regarding her philosophical views were constant. As a ninth grader, I did not understand the logic behind her reasoning. The change was sudden and I found myself bursting out with negative energy. I was constantly looking at everyone else for approval, and I became too stressed to think clearly. To make matters worse, my teacher told my friends not to be friends with me and even went as far as to avoid me. One friend considered her advice; however, most rejected it and stood by my side. The struggles kept accumulating. Academically, I started receiving terrible grades which never occurred before. In addition, spiritually, I realized that Judaism might have been obtained at birth but it's skills did not come naturally. Frustration rose as the year progressed. Things were only getting