PE (where the 'E' now stands for 'exhaustion')

For a very long time already I had this belief that all PE teachers are supposed to hate me. At first, my theory stood upon interpersonal human relations of how humanity A reacts with humanity B. Its just PE teachers are matchsticks and I’m a gallon of kerosene.

But this understanding was shattered with the realization that the PE teachers I have been through were as diverse (but maybe not as colorful) as rainbows. I can’t be reactive to all of them, all the time - so I was left with this: The existence of an international organization exclusive only to PE teachers.

I find it easy to imagine them having an online forum and someone from my childhood posting my picture headlining “Hate this guy. His body configuration is disrespect to the PE community”. Seriously though, I don’t really care how they manage the consistency, but all PE teachers hate me.

It feels like I’m being mocked when they count “1, 2, 3 …”, in time for those awful bouts of push-ups or curl-ups and when they go around the class, spotting everyone if they’re doing the physical contortions correctly, it would be a miracle if an error isn’t spotted in my form.

It’s really not an issue of being fair, it is just that it seems no matter how much pain I endure, I still can’t do it and PE teachers are not supposed to tolerate that.

I have come to the realization that I can never be as physically capable as most of the populace. Excelling in PE with my set of muscles and bones is just insanity. Why can’t PE teachers accept my fate with me? Treat me with more kindness, maybe? Its always about pushing forward. The problem is: what if you’re pushing against a solid wall, something greater than you are – like genetics? Wouldn’t be that unfair to me? What if this is a minor disability?

I’m taking up taekwondo this semester.

I’m a white-belter and our midterms is to pass a standard promotion to yellow. The midterms don’t scare me. My problem is the class. We start the class with warm-up exercises that I swear burns off the whole of my past two meals. If you could see my face during those crunches and stretches, it’s obvious it’s not only calories the exercise is eating off. I could feel my soul trying to escape me. Sigh.

What a lengthy blog post trying to rationalize waking up and getting to PE class tomorrow.

My PE teachers have all been the best at least in their regions. My taekwondo instructor now is the coach of the Philippine Team. If I could see him through an aspiring and capable athlete’s eye, I probably would have a man-crush on him.