Before I joined Xclusive Step Team here are University of Rochester, I never stepped a day in my life and I never thought that I would ever do it. I didn't think I could do it. I thought it took certain types of people who knew how to make beats by stomping and hitting their bodies with their hands. I always figured that I was not one of those people.

When I came to this school, I saw both Xclusive and the Hip Hop dance crew, Indulgence, perform and announce that they were having tryouts. Even the captain of Xclusive told me that I should tryout for step. I told her I would think about it, but honestly at the time my heart was set on Indulgence. I love hip hop and especially the style of dance, and I always wanted to dance in a hip hop dance crew. A friend of mine and I decided to audition, and we were so nervous. All of our friends came to support us and honestly, it was a really great day. But after after a couple of days, we found out that my friend made it, but I didn't. And I'm not going to lie, I was little devastated (by little a mean a whole lot) and I ended up not really participating in a club or anything for the first semester. All of my friends were involved in something, and I would just go to class and go to the library.

In the second semester I decided to go to the BSU Step Show to support my friends who were both on the step team and the dance crew. It was the most fun I had ever had being an audience member. The show was actually a competition with teams from Rochester participating, and I found myself screaming at the top of my lungs shouting as the different teams performed and literally destroyed the stage. There were teams of all ages performing and let me tell you, age group didn't really matter because each team literally blew me away from the little kids to the high schoolers. The amount of power each person possessed whether they were just standing or stepping was so impressive to me. I wanted to possess that power and move with such precision. After seeing all of those groups perform, I decided to tryout and I actually got in! I was screaming when I found out.

All of my friends were so proud of me for making the team, and I was proud of myself because I had no idea that I could actually step. But it wasn't until my first performance that I told myself that I needed to perform like a stepper, like the people I saw perform. I wanted to step with power and be respected because of it.

My first performance was at the Joint Collegiate Black Students' Summit. I stepped as hard as I could. Once it was over, I was completely out of breathe and was exhausted, but I felt amazing afterwards. I felt amazing because I realized that I was really on a step team. I never thought I would be on a step team and performing with a team. I was also really happy with myself because I really invested myself into it. Once the show was over, everybody complimented me on my facial expressions. Apparently, I'm very good at making faces while I step. A friend of mine described my facial expressions as "a demon possessing me" because one moment I'll be smiling but as soon as we start stepping, I'll get very serious and intense.

But to put a point on the whole story as to how I became a stepper, step really changed me and how I lived my second semester of freshman year. I felt more involved in school and with my friends, and I felt like I had something to sink myself into and to really challenge myself. I've found a certain type of confidence within myself being a stepper. I feel like I walk with a little more confidence knowing that I'm on a step team, and I'm involved in something that is greatly admired and appreciated in black culture.

I think what I love the most about step is that I have the liberty to be aggressive but with precision when I step. It's another outlet that I have besides visual art to help me express and release the anger that's built up inside of me. For me, I take step very seriously, and I want to become great at it. I've only been stepping for a few months, but I want to grow and be at the level that the upperclassmen on the team are at. Step is one of the few things that I decided to do for me. It's something that I want to work at, slowly become great at, and have fun doing with the others on the team. I've always done things on my own, but being in Xclusive teaches you to be a teammate because the only way that step works is if a team is in sync and that only happens if each person listens to one another.

Step changed my second semester because it gave me something to look forward to. I looked forward to practice and our performances. It gave me a reason to be excited and also handed me another creative outlet since I feel like I don't have time to paint or draw anything while I'm here at college. Step motivates me, inspires me, challenges me and gives me confidence. It gives me all of the things that I hadn't realized I let go in the first semester of my college experience.