#6 Just Dance

Just Dance

There is such a passion in dance that can't be found anywhere else. -Kylie K.

        Last year when writing an essay about dance I was stumped. I had absolutely no clue what to write about. I looked over at my friend Kylie and began discussing what to write about. As we talked Kylie rattled off the quote I have written above. This one quote inspired me so much. 

        After speaking with Kylie I wrote my paper with such ease. While writing the paper I realized that dance really does have such passion! As I continued to write my paper I found another quote by a famous dancer named Martha Graham, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul". This quote holds so much truth. When choreographing a dance you can make the dance strong and powerful, you can make it dark, you can make it pleasant and happy! You can really portray any feeling you want through movements of the body.

        After writing this paper I found myself putting more and more of my personal feelings into my dancing. I participate in a dance class at a dance studio named Creative Rhythms Dance Studio and when we aren't learning choreography or doing some other form of structured activity I find myself just dancing and letting my feelings from that week flow out through my body, it is honestly one of my best sources to relieve stress and "vent". 

        Before Kylie said this quote I would just dance and do what I was taught, there really wasn't to much feeling that went into it but after this quote I have completely transformed my dancing from a structured activity to a time when I let loose and allow my feelings to be released from my body. I find that when I don't dance for a period of time, I am unhappy and grouchy with the people around me.

        I don’t know what I would do without dance because there is no other outlet for me that allows such stress relief. Even as the years have gone on I have continued to further my dancing skills and allow more and more of my feelings to show. I wish that everyone could let loose the way that I know many dancers do. I love dance and honestly I don’t see myself ever giving it up because first of all, I don’t think that the people I associate with could stand me if I didn't and secondly because It is one of the only things that I do well and thuroghly enjoy doing. All in all, dancing just makes the world a happier place.

So there you have it kids, make the world and yourself happy and just dance, it’ll be okay ;]

See what I did there? But for real kids, Just Dance.

#5 See the potential not only in yourself, but in the others around you.

See the potential in the people around you.
     
        Today I wrote an essay for the Timothy Portenier Memorial Scholarship. The prompt that I had to follow was The Importance of a Special Needs Individual in Society Today.
I’m going to be 100% honest, when I first read the prompt I was blank minded. Nothing popped into my head. I continued to think about the prompt and finally I came up with some reasons that special needs individuals are important to today’s society. First of all, they are capable of teaching us tolerance. Secondly, they can inspire us greatly. And last, they can bring us great joy. As I wrote this paper I began to see the potential that each of these unique human beings has. Then I went on to think about all of the potential that each and every human has.

        Think about it this way, when you really don’t like someone, you think derogatory thoughts about them, for girls it may be, “she’s such a slut.” Or “She’s so ugly.” You never hear a girl say something like, “She’s such a slut, but she’s so smart.” Or “Her hairs so ugly, but she has such a pretty face.” This is because when you see the potential in someone, it makes it really hard to dislike or see something negative about them. If everyone could see potential in the people around them, the world would be a much better place, there wouldn’t be bullying, there wouldn’t be racism, there wouldn’t be any more comparing ourselves to others, there would just be recognition of potential in the people around us.

        I’m going to make it a goal of mine this year to see the potential in others around me simply because it will do away with the negative thoughts and comments that run through my mind about others. It’s going to be very hard to find the positive in all situations at first because of the whole optimistic pessimistic thing (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, read my last blog) but once I get my feelings under control, finding at least one good thing about a person and seeing that they aren’t just a target for hatred will make you not only feel happier but look happier to others.

        Who knows maybe your new happy appearance will shine upon others around you and spread like wildfire! So there yuh go kids! This year take the initiative to See the Potential in the People Around You!

#4 Be Optomistic

Be Optomistic

In life, things don't always happen as we expect them to; and when they don't we automatically resort to a pessimistic train of thought. At least that's how we react at the beginning, after thinking about how we feel, some people would realize that they were acting ridiculous and start to look at the bright side of things but some would just decide to stay angry and pessimistic.

Throughout my experiences in life I have found that being optimistic has the best pay-out. In the moment, it may seem like letting the anger control you is the easiest thing to do but in the long run, being angry is a waste of time. When we are angry we aren't ourselves, things that we would normally see as extremely fun and entertaining become irrelevant and stupid to us because we are letting the anger control our lives. Being pessimistic could lead to missing some of the most important events in our lifes.

Like I said earlier, being pessimistic seems easier sometimes but in the end the best pay off will come from being optimistic and looking at the brighter side of things. When we look at the brighter side of things we take into consideration all of the things that we can improve on, we are simply happier because we see that we can improve and that things could have been ten thousand times worse.

Over the weekend I went to the Mad/Jazz Festival on the NAU campus in Flagstaff, AZ. At the festival, the jazz choir that I am involved in performed then after our performance a lady that is trained in vocal jazz came on stage and critiqued us. I was fine at this point; I mean I was a little disappointed with our performance. I felt like we didn’t do our best.

It wasn’t until we got our rating that I really was like, “Wow. We suck.” We got a Good, which is almost the worst rating that you can get. All I could think was, we are terrible. Then as I kept thinking I got more and more pissed because I thought about all of the new people that have no previous training in jazz. I was livid. I wanted to turn around and blame it all on the other people in the choir that I knew had not jazz training previous to this year.

 I continued to let the angry fire kindle in my heart and then I asked myself, “What the hell are you doing? You’re beating yourself and your group down. You will go nowhere with that mentality.” At that point I decided that I was acting like a total idiot. I needed to realize that we did what we could. I needed to realize that all of the people I felt were inferior in jazz training had nowhere to go but up.

On the way home we finally got a chance to listen to our recording as a group in the car and I was amazed. We sounded pretty damn good. Sure there were little things that needed to be fixed but they were just that, little things. I don’t believe that the clinician that we got gave us a fair rating. Instead of making me angry, this experience has just given me confidence to push further and help the others in my jazz group to go further as well.

My experience shows that being pessimistic will take us nowhere in life so therefore kids, we must choose to Be Optomistic.

#3 Titles don't matter.

Titles don't matter.

 Yesterday my cheer squad went to the State Championship Competition. We got 5^th place in Co-ed show cheer which is amazing, and then 9th in partner stunting. Needless to say, I was less than excited to hear that.

 I was beyond excited for 5^th place in show cheer! That means that we are the fifth best team in the state in our division which is pretty darn amazing if you ask me, but 9th in partner stunting? When they said that we got 9th I didn't know what to feel. I knew that my friend Andy who is the main base just had his heart torn out of his chest, but I didn't know if I should be angry because we deserved much better than 9th, sad because I knew how Andy and Violet must be feeling, or just pretend to be okay because that's what would look best for Holbrook. I went with the fake put on a smile choice because in the end, making Holbrook look good is what is going to matter most. We don't want to be known as the poor sports.

 Inside I was fuming. How the hell did we get ninth?! I felt like we did better than the 1st place team! I don't know if I am just being biased or not but I really felt that way. For the rest of the day yesterday all I could think about is how we deserved a better place, but after a long while I started to think about it deeper.

 Everyone that was there watched us, they loved us, and they know we got screwed over. They know who the best is, sure we didn't get the big ugly bronze plaque like the first place team, but in the end the plaque isn't what matters! We, and the people who witnessed our performance, know who the true winners are.

 The plaque is exactly what it is, a big ugly bronze plaque. There is nothing pretty about it. Yeah it may be the "official" state title but that’s all it will ever be is a title.

 Like I said before, everyone that saw it, whether in person or via internet, knows that we were truly amazing. All the other team has over us is a plaque! Nothing more than that! We should be proud of what we did yesterday morning. We should be proud of the months of effort that we put in, and we should be proud that people will remember Holbrook as a bad ass cheer team with a hard core partner stunt routine that many will remember forever.

 I could not be more proud of my team, I could not be more proud of Andy and Violet, I could not be more thankful for my amazing coach, and I could not be more proud to call Holbrook my home.

 So remember kids, all that matters is that we know in our hearts, we are truly #1 and that in the end, titles don't matter.