It all comes down to high-school

I'm currently living in a Sikh Ashram one block from Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco. I'm lucky enough to live there because of being friends with someone who grew up there.

The reason I mention this, is because this morning, I sat in a room watching the girls I live with do this insane yoga set that I literally could not do if I tried. They both just graduated from Miri Piri Academy, in India, the premier school for Sikhs, where you don't just graduate with a high school degree, and an entire health lifestyle ingrained in you, but a license to teach yoga as well. They leave fully able to get along in the world, get a well paying job, or do anything else they want, completely self-sufficient with exercise, good sleep, good food, and every other good habit you could ever want. And I left my high-school with no skills other than a constant nagging that I need to be in "college" being "educated" so I can "succeed".

Not that I'm complaining about Waldorf, the weird little wonderful artsy high-school I went to, I loved it there, I loved the people and the art, and the sense of community, and the teachers interest in each student (I still go back and have coffee with some of my favorite teachers). I loved a lot about my high-school, I left with a profound sense of social depth and moral aptitude which you'd think would be wonderful, but has actually served me badly in the world as I now expect people to treat me with respect and understanding, as I would treat them, where in fact I'm treated as everyone is treated, with distrust and disregard. Still, though, I certainly didn't leave a fully fledged yoga teacher, bilingual, and chock full of all those life improvements and empowerment that the rest of the world has to work so hard on. Now that's a high-school worth going to.

So while the girls were getting up at 5am, taking 11 minute cold showers, making power smoothies, doing Sadhana, (the morning worship involving meditation and the opening of the sacred book) doing the morning yoga set (they each do different sets for 40 days depending on what they want to improve in their bodies) then getting ready, wrapping their turbans and making salad and kicharee (mung beans, rice, vegtables and spices all cooked together into a thick stew) for lunch, and going to work, I was snoring away in bed, fat oozing out of old gross boxers, un-showered greasy hair all over the pillow, till half past eleven. Even after I woke up, it didn't get any better, I stumbled downstairs, morning breath leaving a rancid cloud behind me, and bleary-eyed stuffed some crumpets in my mouth before going back up-stairs to sit around, arguing with my boyfriend, having people cancel plans on me, and altogether doing nothing the entirety of the day. Productive, eh?

Basically, it's not my fault I'm a useless lazy bum, it all comes down to where I went to high-school.

My girls...

And some of the crazy yoga poses they do...

PS... These girls are only 17 and 18. The 18 year old is making $1000 a week as a massage therapist, and is about to go to med school to be an osteopath, while the 17 year old (the one in the crazy pose) is about to go to school to study digital media and art.