The Bucket List Crashers are proud to congratulate newly certified Zumba instructor, Sarah!!
When we started this journey with Sarah back in December, we hoped that this would be a positive experience for her and that she would successfully complete her certification. Little did we know, this journey would change Sarah’s life in so many ways.
On Friday, May 6th, Sarah joined 60 other people in New York for a grueling 9-hour Zumba certification class. While some people might have been intimidated by traveling alone for the first time in years, standing in a room of strangers, learning and repeating Zumba moves for 9 hours, according to Sarah, this was by far the easiest part of this entire experience.
According to Sarah, the hardest part of pursuing this bucket list item, was reading our December 17th post where we introduced her story. We go through the motions of our lives everyday and sometimes don’t give our circumstances much thought. Instead we grin and bear it and accept those circumstances as the status quo. Sometimes we need someone else to hold up a special mirror that shows us a truthful reflection of our lives. For Sarah, reading our initial post was that special mirror.
Sarah says, “Reading the posts about my situation from someone else’s perspective, really helped me to realize that I needed to make a change in my life”. Sarah felt that she was reading a story about another person. She actually felt bad for the woman that she was reading about. It helped her come to the all-important realization that she really didn’t want to be the woman that she was reading about. According to Sarah, “I realized that I had lost myself and forgot who I was”. That was exactly what she needed to help her take action and make big changes.
Sarah was very overwhelmed when she discovered that we were crashing her bucket list. She couldn’t believe that we were making her a priority and going out of our way to help her. Sarah says, “Knowing that you guys were doing this for me made me want to take action”. Once she made that decision and started proclaiming this goal as something truly attainable, amazing things started to happen.
Sarah knew that she would need to do some physical work in order to prepare for her certification. She saw an advertisement in her local newspaper for a personal trainer that was offering a free 10-day training program. She thought that would be a great starting point. Her 10-day training experience was so positive, that her trainer agreed to continue to train her, for free, for the next year! She’s already lost 32 pounds and has gone from a size 12 to a size 4.
As we all know, obtaining her Zumba certification was just one part of this overall journey for Sarah. The true goal was to gain the confidence to make necessary changes in her marriage and home life. It has also helped her to realize that she needed to make her mental well-being a priority as well. Sarah has begun to attend counseling. The progress that she has made in therapy has helped her to be more vocal when she isn’t happy. She now has the courage to express her needs and to stand up for herself when necessary. Sarah is taking her life and marriage one day at a time and is also trying different steps each day to gain more independence. She feels that this will be a key component to her overall growth. According to Sarah, “I now realize that I don’t have to accept not being treated like a person of value”. As of right now, unfortunately, her husband isn’t attending counseling with her. However she is hopeful that the changes that she is making in herself will inspire growth in him as well. If not, she is confident that she will now have the courage to make difficult decisions and changes if needed.
Her newly attained Zumba certification and dedication to physical and mental wellness have opened a whole new world for Sarah. She will begin teaching her own Zumba class at a local gym next month. We couldn’t be prouder of her! Sarah says, “This experience helped me find who I was again. If someone is willing to help you, like the Bucket List Crashers were willing to help me, you have to take that chance and opportunity”.
The Bucket List Crashers would like to thank everyone for their support and positive wishes. We would not have been able to help Sarah without them! We hope that you are as touched by this “crash” as we are. Hopefully we can all find a little inspiration in her story. If you or someone you know is interested in having the Bucket List Crashers crash an item on your life’s to-do list, please contact us at bucketlistcrashers@gmail.com.
Check out a few pictures of Sarah's Zumba certification class below. In order to protect Sarah's identity, we cannot reveal where she is in the pictures. However, rest assured, she's in there getting her Zumba on! Congrats Sarah!
