“Another day, another dollar,” that’s what I see on the businessmen’s faces as I walk by them getting off the Chambers St. station. They’re on their way to work in their suits, I’m on my way to work in my black sweats. A blue and orange work shirt is required along with black flexible leggings and or sweats. I make my way up the small ramp leading to the very modern looking glass door. The lights are off. Great… of course I’m early. I patiently wait for my manager to arrive—nobody else has a key to the building but her and the owners of the preschool. Outside there’s no distinct sign, just silver lining the glass with 77 on the top of the building. The preschool was clever to put a sign against the glass that reads “Reade Street Prep.” It has little colorful cartoon people holding hands in a circle, you know the ones with no faces or clothes. In the distance I see my manager Sarah, who always carries at least three bags with her. The lights go on and every inch of wall is a sunny exotic forest wallpaper that matches our theme perfectly. The front desk looks very playful, it’s almost semi-circled and all white. On the right is a railing where parents can park their baby strollers and on the left is the surveillance room. As I lay down my belongings in a nearby classroom Sarah gets the Ipods charging.

Exerblast is the name of our gym, located downstairs from Reade Street Prep. Exerblast is a child fitness center for children from the ages of two to nine. The gym provides parents with a space to have birthday parties and to drop their kids at our after school program and camps. Camp days are on school breaks and after school is Mondays and Tuesdays. Each session in the gym is called a “Blast.” Exerblast provides belts for each child which holds an Ipod. The Ipod has an Exerblast App with a color square that changes colors from red to green depending on how much the child moves. It also gives them a certain amount of Energy points shown on the right of the color square. When each child is belted and brought downstairs we begin the story of Botania, the planet we are on. The planet has been lacking energy due to an energy crisis. The people of Botania are the Shrie people, and they need our help restoring energy in order to save Botania. The kids must create as many energy points as possible. After each child is belted they also get wristbands that indicate which team they are on and which guide to stick with. On a typical birthday the parents will come downstairs to mingle and eat the assortments brought in by Whole Foods or the parents. I have worked for Exerblast for a solid year now and I don’t even know how much my services cost. Most likely the other guides have no clue either. We have Nikki at Front Desk and she handles the payments and gratuity. I do know one parent had a party of about 20 kids, went all out with custom everything, balloons that spelt out the birthday boy’s name, catering from Whole Foods and wine, which came out to a thousand dollars including a nice tip.

I open the white fence gate that hovers at the top of the stairway and start walking down to the gym. The gym space has four sections, the bright and energetic light field, the sometimes dangerous obstacle course, the very hard to spin rockclimbing wall and the always troublesome ball pit. I take my shoes off, open a second white fence entering into the gym and wiggle my toes into the soft grass. The light field and obstacle course are covered in a grass flooring while the ball pit and rockclimbing wall are matted. I get a gentle stretch in as more guides make their way into the gym. Each guide has a dance or athletic background. Amanda, for example, is a small town girl from Tampa, Florida, a dancer working at a Masters in Dance. Leah is also a dancer, graduated as a dance major and is now working for a company. Victor, a city man who’s lived in New York all his life and has been working with kids for years, is a gymnast in college. As for me, I’m from the city, I’ve been working with kids with special needs for about three years, I received a dance scholarship as a kid and I was a cheerleader at Arvada West High School in Colorado. When all the guides have looked over to make sure everything is prepared we all make our way upstairs to greet incoming parents and children.

Today twenty-three kids will be arriving for Nick’s 6th birthday party. The guides assume their regular positions. Amanda is at the door to greet parents, Sarah and Nikki are at the front desk checking in parents and children, Victor takes coats from parents and children and Leah and myself belt children, have them remove their shoes and group them. On birthdays the birthday boy or girl’s parents are usually the first to arrive to bring in any food they brought for the parents or party favors. The usual is sandwiches, vegetables and coffee or wine. RING! The doorbell sings. Nick’s parents make their way in. “Mommy has a ton of things to do this weekend but Nick sweetie all your friends are coming just for your birthday!” I overheard the mother speaking to Nick. She struggled but attempted to gesture a handshake while Nick is climbing on top of her and says “Hi I’m Lisa. I brought some food for the parents, just be very careful there’s some wine in the second bag there.” Just as I thought, wine. I find that our clients are usually very busy with work or even famous. I have actually taught three blasts with the daughter of Bethany from The Real Housewives.

When at least 75% of the kids have arrived at the party we have them line up with their specific guide and make our way downstairs into the gym space. We start a nice 15-minute warm up together with a video. The video explains the belt system shortly with Commander Pie, a talking Pineapple that leads us to our mission. Afterwards we establish short rules for the kids and each guide introduces him or herself to their group to start the blast.

Each station is repeated twice and the work-out portion is an hour and fifteen minutes all together. The light station is my favorite station and every guide’s favorite station, which is why I always send my kids to run to that station first. After hyping up the kids by telling them how much fun we are going to have I make my way to the column that holds the machine that activates the lights for different games. For six year olds I recommend the first game, which I call Color Dash. Each child finds their favorite color light on the ground to sit on and has to follow that color wherever it may go. If you’re away from it for too long you start to lose points on your belt. Each round I play with them I’ll shout out a new command. “FLY LIKE A PLANE TO YOUR NEXT LIGHT!” or “NINJA TO YOUR NEXT LIGHT!” The next game on the machine Exerblast calls Dodge the Light. A single white light is flashed onto the ground and that is a vortex and the goal is to run from the light otherwise you’ll lose points. This game is fun but most of the kids get so focused on not touching the light they will run off into the obstacle course. Lastly we play Tap Tap, five lights are flashed onto the wall then to the floor and exchange faster and faster. Children must go from light to light only using a certain body part. Every so often I’ll have the kids follow the light with their butt, which is honestly so adorable to watch. After about 10 minutes we switch to the next station which is the obstacle course. The obstacle course is designed specifically each morning for the particular age group for that day. We go through the obstacle course twice together, then one-by-one timed. Its regulation at the gym for me to do the obstacle course the first time with them. This is definitely not something I look forward to. Although my body is small, the course is designed for an even smaller body. I squeeze my way into the tunnels which the kids seem to get a kick out of. Next we make our way to the rock climbing wall. Here we play duck, duck, CLIMB which has the same rules of duck, duck, goose but when you are chosen you run around once, climb up the wall, touch the top then pick the next child to climb up the wall. Lastly the very troublesome ball pit. The most popular game here is Ships and Sailors which is a list of commands kids follow. For example Ships they will run to the wall on the left and Sailors they run to the wall on the right, Hit the Deck they will belly flop… etc. The ball pit is the station the kids look forward to the most but it’s the least favorite of all the guides. There is always an issue at the ball pit and as a guide I have to be five times more attentive to make sure kids don’t go flying face first or try to squeeze underneath the balls.

During the party we usually have at least one kid cry because a hand was stepped on or a child lost balance and fell on another child in the ball pit. I’ve also noticed five similar kinds of kids at each class or party. You have a bossy I’m bigger than you child, he’s first because he’s bigger. Then you have the Socially Anxious child that doesn’t want to be away from mom or dad. You can’t help but feel sorry for the child because he or she will break into water works an inch away from mom or dad. On some occasions you’ll have the girl or boy that wants to play a game he or she knows and will only want to play that game otherwise the child won’t participate at all. You have the kids whose parents want to be involved in every activity. In the gym we have a strict no parents in the gym rule unless you have the socially anxious child in your group and it’s absolutely necessary. I continuously have to tell parents “Hey, we’re actually not supposed to have parents beyond this point. Feel free to watch, take pictures and mingle in the party room. If you have any concerns feel free to call for me and I’ll come over.” That’s my usual little spiel which hasn’t failed me yet. Lastly, I have recently discovered the Glue child. This can vary between either the child is attached to the guide and wants to be the “little helper” for the day or the child is attached to a best friend and the same symptoms apply for both. This child usually jumps on you when you aren’t looking, hugs you consistently and will wrap around your leg if not given the proper amount of attention. With so many kids and parents running around sometimes it can get overwhelming. The kids get restless, the parents are breathing on your neck and my boss is looking over everything on top of that. The job always gets easier every blast taught, you learn something new every blast which makes the next blast easier.

Now that exercising is done all the groups come together for one final cool down to shake off the last minute wiggles and laugh all the last minute giggles. Then the leading guide will lead the meditation and have all the kids lie flat on their backs, hands to their sides and breathe in and out. When all the kids are quiet, the leading guide will softly awaken the kids, remove the belts and bring everyone in to say one big happy birthday to Nick before going into the party room for pizza and cake. Each party is the same in the party room. The party room is set up the day before with decorations, balloons, cups, plates and plastic-ware. The food for the parents is on the tables close to the walls, and the kids are served by the guides pizza and any little assortments that were brought in. Then after about 20 minutes of eating, the birthday cake is brought out for Nick to blow out his candles. The cake is then cut and distributed around the party room. Some days I take what time I can to just watch. The parents and kids look so happy, the moms are laughing at the stories they exchange, kids are letting their imagination run wild and the dads are relaxing also exchanging a share of sports and work. My job really has an effect on these parents’ lives as well—out of all the busy days they have, this is at least a couple of hours of less stress.

“Hey Nick did you have fun?” I asked. The immediate reaction of the 6 year old was a clear smile that stretched from ear to ear. His mouth was open as if he had smiled so big he needed to open to stretch it even further. His cheeks were bright pink and you could count all his teeth with how big he was smiling. “Yeah! Hey Sade how many points did I get?” he asks anxiously. “Well Nick today you made 3,407 points! That’s the most I’ve seen all day!” I yell softly for emphasis. The boys behind him run in a large stampede towards me and already in my head I can hear “What about me?!” As prepared as I am trained to be I whip out each child’s point card and hand them over. In the herd of children I see sweaty heads, big smiles and parents having a hard time getting their kids to want to go home. After the parents and children leave, the guides stick around to rearrange and clean the rooms to their original design. We also distribute and or throw out the last of the catering food. If a tip was left that is also accounted for at the end of the day. At Exerblast you have to learn to keep composure and have a sense of humor otherwise things can feel overwhelming. Kids do the craziest things and sometimes you need to sit back and laugh with them. At the end of the day my job is very physically and mentally exhausting, it may not be common or even taken seriously but I raise my head proud of the work I do. The highlight of my day is getting a heart-warming response like little Nick’s. That smile was so full of happiness and excitement which makes my job the most rewarding. Nick’s smile in particular was one I won’t forget. If he could understand, I would tell him thank you for making my job so rewarding. Thinking of your smile makes me smile for a week.