It’s 2022 and I’m about to get on stage to take my final bow in my senior year dance recital.
I thought to myself, “After this, I’m finally done with dance. No more class, no more competition, and no more pain.”
It was an eerie feeling, for something that was once my whole life was about to just become a distant memory.
I am forever grateful for the opportunities I was given, the people I met along the way, and the teachers that helped me grow as a dancer. But one piece of me held a bit of anger towards the person that crushed my passion.
After entering college, I swore I would never join the dance team here.
For the first time in at least 10 years, I finally had time to do whatever I wanted without being held down by a sport.
One of my close friends was on the SBU Dance Team, so since freshman year, we’ve come to all of the shows to show our support.
I never admit it to anyone, but for the past 2 years, I’ve sat in the audience and cried at every single dance team show.
Maybe it was a mix between just being so proud to watch my friend shine onstage, watching dance in general, or wanting to be up on stage dancing again.
My friend tried for a year to convince me to join and I just wouldn’t budge. I wanted to finally be free from it and not have to fear that I would just be in the same position I was in 2 years ago: miserable.
Some of my old dance teachers opened a new dance studio and had asked me and a former teammate to run the dance camp for the little kids during the summer and we ran to take that opportunity.
This past summer was my second year doing it and while I was there, I think a switch flipped inside of me and I knew that I needed to bring dance back in my life full time.
So when I came back for fall semester, I decided I was going to try out for the SBU Dance Team.
Even though it’s only been a few weeks, it feels like no time has gone by.
I feel like dance never left my life and I finally have that passion back.
The environment was a bit of a shock, being that it’s not competitive at ALL (thank God) and everyone is just there to have fun.
I immediately felt like I fit right in and for that, I feel so blessed.
I definitely made the right decision joining because I would have never met so many amazing people that gave me back my love for dance.
And the best part is that I can finally start annoying people again by saying, “Oh yeah, I did a dance to that song!”
The little girl that loved watching the tall, shiny ballerinas dancing on pointe and the Radio City Rockettes do a big kick line is finally back and she would be so proud to see that it’s still a huge part of her life.
I can’t wait to not only be back on stage again, but cheer on my NEW team at the same time.