We are a group of about ten women, ranging in age and experience by nearly two decades. This is not a self-help group, except that it is. This is not a self-improvement group, except that it is. We have leaders, yes, but we are all in this together and that is what makes us different. That is what makes this work. Courtesan School is a place for becoming. We have all been dissatisfied with what we are, or were when we began. What we become, as well as where we are now, is as varied as the women involved. Some of us want to be published writers. Others, to be freelance entrepreneurs. Still others, actors. Everything we do is a process and a journey, not a goal. We constantly tinker, refining goals, refining ways to get to those goals. Every so often, the destination we thought we saw isn't the one that forms. Communication and baby steps are our watchwords. We mind our surroundings, learn from our mistakes and each others', pay attention to what we have done and what our sisters are doing so that we can better help ourselves and each other. And we know that this is not a magic pill; as much as we might like to have one (for the weight, for those writing projects, for everything under the sun), we are all too aware that we are taking a series of small, steady changes. This is not something we intend to drop after a year; it is not something we intend to drop even after ten years. These are life changes: being fit and healthy, finding our dreams and living them.