America. Land of the free, home of the brave.
Also home of the 16-year-old Olympian, child prodigy, pre-teen college student, and the overuse injury.
A common American dream is to die old with the one you love, but it has been drawn to my attention that the real American dream typically starts at the age of four. It is practically required that as a parent, you get your child involved in developing a skill of some sort between the ages of four and five, like piano, football, or gymnastics.
Your child will then vigorously perfect this skill, compete at a ridiculously competitive level, feel pressured to continue it through high school, perhaps even college, and just be good at that one thing. They will have that one talent practically embedded in their identity, and it will stick with them, perhaps haunt them, forever.
Who decided this? Who created the one and done rule?
America’s culture has disallowed people to be beginners at almost anything past the ripe age of ten, and this prohibits people from trying new things. Of course I participated in this unspoken rule and played soccer for roughly ten years, but let me be the first to confess I deeply, truly, with all my heart, wish I was a ballerina.
I know that may sound silly and irrelevant, but that is a serious wish that I have. I wish I was flexible, constantly had an excuse to wear tights, and got to jam out to classical music every time I rehearsed doing what I hypothetically love. I love being strong and I am constantly trying to improve my strength, but I also aspire to have a poise, a delicacy about myself.
Strong and delicate? Yeah, I definitely just described a ballerina.
Upon entering college, I had the opportunity to take a beginners ballet class free of charge, so of course I hopped on that as fast as I could. I wore my best leggings, moisturized my feet, and listened to swan lake on repeat the entire drive to the gym. I had convinced myself that this class was going to be the beginning of a new hobby of mine, and I was finally going to get to be a ballerina.
Once I parked, I walked straight into the dance room and much to my dismay, everyone else in the class was about four feet tall, was doing some form of the splits, and was wearing a leotard. Everyone else was already a ballerina. We started off the class with some basics, but after the instructor realized everyone knew what they were doing, I had to make my way to the back as fast as possible.
She immediately switched gears and started teaching towards her audience, minus me. Don’t get me wrong, I can touch my toes just fine and all, but that was literally the first thing I had ever done ballet related, and even though the word beginner was in the title of the class, no one walked me step by step through anything.
My ballet career began and ended that day, and it has genuinely upset me ever since then that you can’t really do anything for the first time in today’s society.
It’s you snooze you lose, and I lost a long time ago when it comes to being a ballerina. It used to really upset me that I don’t have just one thing to call my very own. I am a pretty decent musician, I am an average runner, I like to think I’m pretty good at writing, and I make a slightly better than most scrambled egg. I haven’t perfected one thing, I don’t have one talent that people associate with my presence. But, all of these things are a part of who I am.
You won’t find me graduating before my class or competing in the Olympics, but I do what I love. I make music, articles, and breakfast foods alike with the same amount of fervor. These are pieces of me, and honestly, I wouldn’t change that. I think our society is so driven towards being the best at one thing when in reality, having several things to call your own can be just as, if not more so fulfilling.
I am in no way lessening the college athlete or kid genius, but not everyone has to be a college athlete or kid genius. There is no shame in not being first place, second place or even third. I’d rather spend my time breaking my comfort zone instead of breaking records.
I firmly believe that constantly trying new things is important in helping you grow as a person and create the version of yourself you like best. I would rather be a well traveled individual who has attempted every task known to man than be the absolute greatest at just one thing in one place. Although it is difficult, I try daily to push myself, and I would urge you, precious reader, to do the same.
I hope one day I do finally find myself in a leotard, and I hope you have the courage to pursue the desires of your being, your multiple desires, even though our culture constantly tries to make you feel as though it is too late. Or that you’re too old, too young, too thin, too wide too this or that.
There is so much joy waiting for you on the other side of your comfort zone, your multiple comfort zones, on the other side of trying. I beg you to expand yourself, almost as an act of defiance against the world. Afterall, everybody loves a rebel.
