Do you have something you’ve always wanted to be good at, even when you were little? For some it’s singing, or sports, or acting, or drawing. For me, it was dancing. I would see movies of elegant dancers gliding across the stage, or street performers surge with the booming and thumping of hip hop music. I always had a deep desire to be just like them, and wanted to be able to flow with the music, but actually know what I was doing. However, I never really had a chance to get into any special classes or lessons to learn. My first experience was trying out for the high-school dance team.
After it was over, it felt like it never even happened. My adrenaline had blurred it all together. When I went home, I not-so-patiently waited to know the results. It was tradition to receive a text, and a varsity shirt personally brought to us by the coach if we made the team. It was running on 8 o’clock, and I was a little disappointed, but not too much. After all, I was an incoming freshman, and freshman rarely made it on varsity unless they were alternates. That’s why I was so shocked when I received a text message. The pure joy and relief I felt was a great contrast to the fear and anxiety I’d been feeling in the previous days. The next day couldn’t come fast enough.
When I was getting ready to perform at my first competition, the utter terror and panic I had when I saw the people stacked in the stands was paralyzing. Highschool basketball game performances were nothing compared to this. It was dead silent as we walked onto the stage, and waited for the first sound of the music. Once it began, my fear melted away. Hours upon hours of training and practicing made me assured in my moves. The rush you get as you feel so graceful, yet so powerful at the same time, with crowds of people hanging onto your every move, twist, and turn to the rhythm of the music is euphoric. It seems like it’s over just as fast as it begins. Once the music stops, there’s the split second of silence, where the only thing I can hear is my breath puff and my pulse hammer in my chest. Then the crowd explodes with applause and cheers. I finally felt like those dancers I admired for years. That’s when I knew, I finally found something I’m good at.
