All the blisters and calluses on my feet tell a story. If you were to take away those wounds, I wouldn’t be the person I am. That’s just how life works. We all have something that is going to be part of who were all. These things shape everything we do, and how we live our lives. I am a dancer, forever and always standing in fifth position whenever I make a presentation. From the love ballad-ballet to the comical tap piece, these routines showed me new things about myself I never knew was inside of me; feelings are never meant to be left on the inside, smile even when you forget something, and just keep moving forward because not everyone is going to like everything you like.
Life lessons come for free when you allow yourself to open up and experience them. Every time I felt like I couldn’t move, I continued to move forward because I pushed myself to get through it. At the end of the day, you’re your own cheerleader. You can encourage yourself to keep going, or take the easy way out. I’ve danced with sprained ankles, cartilage damage in my knee, and ingrown toenails. Dance is not always as pretty as it seems on stage. Through all the injuries, I have always learned to keep getting up even when you feel like you can’t. I’ve grown to understand the meaning of having a high pain tolerance, continuing a performance after having a cyst rupture the same day. You need to put your best foot forward, and continue to move on because there are people out there that are relying on you to perform the part you are giving. Do not be that person to let people down. I’ve been there, and it was the worst decision I had ever made. I walked into my dance class to announce to them that I was quitting because I wanted to focus on being “normal,” but at that moment I didn’t know that normal was me spending all my time at a place where I felt most myself. It didn’t hit me until I was sitting outside with one of my friends that night, and as I started to tell her I quite dance. As I started to cry outside on my patio, the owner of the dance studio came running up the stairs, crying herself, and told me that I could never quite because that would be giving up and in all my years at the dance studio no had ever taught me to give up nor would they ever teach me that.
All the lessons from dance taught me to value what I’m doing which influenced how I live my life. Yes, many of them are cliché, but that’s life. We must deal with the cliché moments to get to the deeper ones. That’s why I still dance, it brings me happiness when I need it the most. That’s why my dance teachers still dance too. If something brings you happiness, do it. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous it may seem. Success cannot be measured in money; success is finding something that you enjoy doing at any cost. To this day, I still always ask myself whether I’m dancing to my dance studios expectations of me, or if I can push myself more because that would make me feel more successful in my dance career.
To Theresa, Mandi, Liz, Susan, and so many more thank you for all the lessons I’ve learned along the way. As you can all tell, I enjoy passing them along every day.