For the past 17 years, all I have done was dance. I danced at a studio, danced competitively, high school and now, I have finished my first year as a college dancer at Hastings College. I never regretted my choice to dance and I never will. I was given this amazing opportunity, but all sports require sacrifice. Whether that means not going out with friends because you have homework and a 5 am practice the next morning, having your work schedule changed due to something sport related that comes up last minute, or even not having the last piece of cake because you have a competition the next day. I have made many sacrifices all for dance.
My body. I have hurt myself many times. I have bad hips that both crack. I can barely sit still for twenty minutes until I have to get up and stretch my tight hips. I just had knee surgery. This was due to attempting a new trick. I have shoulder rotation issues because I lift people and carry most of the weight in my shoulders. I have had countless scratches and countless “battle scars”. There are times that I walk off the dance floor with new bruises in new places, but I love them.
My time. There are many times where I have done homework at ten o’clock at night because I didn’t get out of dance until nine thirty at night. I can remember countless times where I got asked to go to a birthday party and I have had to say no because I had dance. Even in college I have to tell people no because I normally have dance that day. I have never been able to go and do other things that other people can do.
Many lost bobby pins and hair ties. Whenever I clean out my dance bag, my backpack, my room, and even my car, I find tons and tons of bobby pins and hair ties. But when I need them, I can never find them, I just find the sad ones that are ready to be retired and that are not working the way that they should. So instead of looking for them, I tend to just go out and buy a new pack of hair ties and bobby pins. I might, if I am lucky, have one hair tie and only a couple of bobby pins.
Dance has been such a huge part of my life and I have been dancing for so long I don’t know what I would do without it. I have made many sacrifices and I will continue to make those as long as I am able to.
