High Hopes

When Bend Yoga was under construction in late 2019, I held classes in a pop-up space on the ground floor of the Hibberd. At the time, it was an unfinished area of the building; now it's the entrance to Shive Hattery Architecture. I left a lot of good vibes there. I mopped those concrete floors until they were dust-free.

Classes started as a trickle of one or two people at a time, which was a good way to build up my comfort level teaching strangers. But everything changed when the folks working in Mayor Pete’s presidential campaign headquarters found Bend. Over lunch one day, all of a sudden I received 12(!) email notifications of 12(!) registrations for class that evening. I was so nervous, I went to TJ Maxx and bought myself a new yoga tank top to feel more confident. Class went well! The campaign staffers started coming regularly. But unbeknownst to me, they had a complaint… 

In my first playlist, I had included the song “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco. It opens with a bracing trumpet fanfare and has a great message about perseverance. It’s the kind of song a hip, Millennial, presidential candidate would use as a walk-out song at his campaign rallies. The exact song that Mayor Pete’s campaign staff were utterly sick of hearing. I had noticed a few eye rolls and I’d heard a few groans but I didn’t know why? One day, one of them finally clued me in and sheepishly asked if I’d skip “High Hopes”.