When I was a kid I’d beg my mom to take me to the local teachers’ supply store. Every time she took me there I’d marvel at all the posters for teachers to decorate their classrooms and hope that someday I’d have a classroom of my own to decorate.

I was a pretty creative kid and at home - where I was likely to be hanging out alone - I would imagine I had my own classroom. I would get out my whiteboard, give my students assignments, and I even created my own gradebook. I was destined to be a teacher.

I don’t know if it was my meh feeling towards traditional school as a I progressed into high school and college, but my ambition to be a school teacher changed over time. I developed a passion for dance and occasionally considered becoming a secondary education dance teacher, however, I was pretty much over school by the time I turned 20. There was no way I was pursuing graduate school.

When I went through my first yoga teacher training a new spark was lit within me. I had a knack for this teaching thing. Although whiteboards and homemade gradebooks weren’t involved, yoga teacher training reminded me that I love sharing with and educating others on subjects I enjoy.

Initially, as a new yoga teacher, I was more interested in moving students through wild, complicated sequences. However, a new perspective was offered to me when I started studying with Jason Crandell. “Yoga is a subject to be learned over time” is something Jason regularly says to his students. Prior to studying with him I had never thought to put yoga in the same category as something like math or history. Just like how you might practice multiplication tables in math and progress onto geometry and trigonometry, yoga has endless layers that are meant to be studied over time.

After completing my advanced yoga teacher training in 2017 I started taking my role as a yoga teacher more seriously. My classes were more thought out and followed a curriculum. Students that regularly attended my classes could learn through repetition and slow, progressive introduction of new concepts and techniques. I may not have been plastering posters with the alphabet on my classroom walls, but it felt good to come back to my roots in a way. Deep down I knew I’d be a teacher. I just didn’t turn into the teacher 7 year-old Erin had imagined.

I always come back to the mindset that yoga is a subject to be learned over time. I believe it is how I’ve been able to continue teaching yoga after all these years. There’s always new shapes, movements patterns, and texts to explore. The learning never ends and we can continue to come back for more.

It turns out the skills I have developed as a yoga teacher have translated to many other aspects of my life. Although it’s taken me a bit of time to feel confident in my abilities and knowledge, what I’ve learned as a yoga teacher has translated well into being a dog trainer. I see my students - humans and dogs - and teach them just as I would teach my yoga students. We start with fundamentals, repeat the concepts and techniques, and progressively add on new skills. And the learning truly never ends with dog training.

Plus, my office just got a laminator and paper cutter. Let’s just say 7 year-old Erin is now living her best life.