True passion sparks from the innermost place of happiness and thrives on the moments when our hearts are beating faster than our minds can even think. We need passion to survive. The moments when we experience the height of it all are the times when we truly feel alive, but not everyone is as lucky as I was when I found what sparks my true passion the most at such a young age.

I started dancing when I was four because I wanted nothing more than to be just like my big sister. I had spent forever watching my sister through huge windows that seemed taller than the Empire State Building. Then all of a sudden it was my turn, but I never stopped watching. As I grew up, I watched my sister form lifelong friendships and dance until her heart was shining out of every part of her. She shined onto everyone and brightened my soul every time as I continued to watch. She tells me that the little sister is always the best dancer because they had someone to look up to, but I disagree she is the biggest star because I am just sharing her light with the world a little bit extra as I strive to reach her level.

Nevertheless, dance is my passion. I can feel my heart skip a beat every single time I would jump into the air and feel like I was flying. I love ballet because the dance itself is naturally beautiful, and it rubbed off on me. Ballet made me embrace beauty, and helped me to always see at least a little tiny bit of it in myself. Then came jazz. My world suddenly got a boost of energy, and I learned what it meant to fall in love the second I began my first jazz dance on a stage. I found my soul mate, but I wasn’t stopping. Next I moved onto hip-hop, and threw a little pop and lock into my soul. I added rhythm with tap, and tossed on some emotion with lyrical. I built my world around me with music and colors brighter than every star in the sky combined, but that wasn’t the end.

My world couldn’t exist on its own and neither could I. It is home to vivacious characters always bubbling with smiles and happy memories. I have teachers that have never seen anything less than the best in me, and that has helped me to strive to be ten times better than I was the last time I walked into the room. I constantly try to push my abilities to new heights, and I always feel so amazing when I reach my goals and obtain a new skill. Some of the best and worst moments always come when my teachers walk in with a video and point to a move and say, “Okay, I want you to figure out how to do that.” I must say I am usually really scared at first because it looks like something that I would never in a billion years be able to pull off, but I still try. They help me up when I fall and I try again until I either figure it out or do something on accident that just happens to be just as cool.

Then I have my friends and my teammates. We tend to constantly be in friendly competition, but we know at the end of the day that we are a family and we could never turn our backs on each other even if we wanted to. They keep me going. On days when I want to run away from it all and just fall off the face of the earth, they squeeze me so tight and never let me go. We grew up together and watched as we all took on the world with our own personal twist in an adventure we couldn’t turn down. I would be nowhere without them. They take me as I am and I could never ask for anything better. The memories we have made and the ones that are destined to come are ones that bring light into my heart and help keep my little world growing and changing into the best possible place it could be. We have bonds that are stronger than I ever thought possible and are truly unbreakable.

Dance has blessed my life and I know wherever I end up, I will always have it in my heart because it really is my world. With all of the people that will inevitably come and go, the music will never stop, and I will continue to always experience moments where my heart beats faster than I can think and true passion will ignite my soul. A famous ballerina known as Anna Pavlova once said, “If I can not dance, I shall die.” and I agree, sort of. I believe that without true passion we are all better off dead. I just happen to experience this when I dance even if it is just for a few shorts minutes of my life. So I say, “If we can not experience true passion, we shall die.”