All of my life, I have been a dancer. My mom began putting me in classes when I was two years old and I started dancing competitively at a studio when I was five. I had practice every day after school till about 9:00 at night. In my Junior and Senior year of high school, I joined the Dance Team at my school. I was competing year-round in the Fall and Spring and never got a break from practice. As exhausting as it was, I always loved it, so putting in long hours and extra practices was easy. Dance taught me self-motivation, determination, teamwork, and work ethic, among many others.
The people I met along the way have truly shaped me into who I am today. Those people inspired, challenged, and encouraged me in ways I can’t describe. I started dancing at Fayetteville Dance Company when I was 9 years old in 2018. I met some of my best friends there and we all grew up together. Going to different schools, different ages, but finding ourselves at the studio every day is something I will never take for granted. Beyond the other dancers, my teachers continuously encouraged me and pushed me to do my best. And these relationships lasted.
Throughout the years I have always been busy with dance. If I wasn’t at school, I would be at the studio. Starting college, I made the terribly hard decision to close that chapter of my life. There’s truly not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the studio or the people and community.
The hardships of dance itself pushed me in so many ways. When I was in second grade, I started to have knee problems. The muscles around my left kneecap weren’t the strongest and it affected my dancing. Doing different turns and leaps in class, I felt like I was always behind. My friends were succeeding and constantly growing while I was adapting to doing things a bit differently. For every class and competition, I would always end up taping my knee. To this day I’m not sure if it truly worked, but mentally knowing it was there always helped.
Putting so much time and effort into something for it all to just be over on some random day is an adjustment. There’s so many people out there who feel the same about other sports. Having that feeling of freedom, adrenaline, excitement, and community is something that you’ll always miss.
But this time is also the start of a new chapter. A chapter with new opportunities and challenges just because that’s the way life goes. All you can do is be thankful for everything that happened along the way and use those lessons going forward. Sports are fun, but they include so much more than what others may realize. Anyone who grew up totally engrossed in their sport has been impacted in a different way. Whether it’s watching someone that inspires you, watching a game with family, or being involved in a sport yourself, a piece of you will always carry that forward, even after the chapter has closed.
