I'm sitting in a cafe in which I feel I slowly came to accept who I
was during the oh so painful high school years. For me, as for many, I
found high school horrible....horribly dull. I picked up on all the
cliques and those silly peer evaluations that teenagers do. I spent two
years at a "stereotypical" high school with a football team and
cheerleaders, no one was mean to me, I had a nice group of friends
but....I was bored. By bored I don't mean I wanted to go to parties and
get drunk and kill my brain cells by experimenting with drugs to experience different "sensations" that was to risky (in my 14 year old opinion). I also didn't want to revolve my life around homework and robotic and debate teams... that meant I'd have to spend even more time
with kids from school. I didn't like how those kids seem to think
they were smarter or more likely to succeed than the other kids who
didn't try as hard or partied more. Actually I DID figure out how I didn't like how all these different people with different interests, disliked each other and looked down upon each other.
At
the beginning of my freshmen year I though I would do theatre in high
school....until I found out that to do theatre you had to put up with thespian initiation. This
essentially meant that to prove my dedication I would have to spend a
whole week doing whatever an older thespian told me to do....and go
dressed up to class. I had no desire to be bossed around and hazed by some kids on a power trip. To be honest I was extremely disappointed.
Luckily I was taking dance for p.e. In that class I rediscovered
that I loved dancing. At the same time I was part of a local production
of (the tragically cheesy) High School Musical. The choreographer told
me I was a good dancer and asked me where I trained, I said I didn't. He
told me I should try ballet. A few months after the musical ended, I
asked the dance p.e. teacher if there were any ballet studios she
recommended. I looked them up in the phone book and went to the one I
thought looked best. The studio I chose was two blocks from the beach and about
five minutes from my house. I remember wandering in for my first class. I
was 14, the studio floor was a white gray and the bright lights and
mirrors made it seem so shiny. I took place at a barre behind a little dark haired girl who was 7.
As the class began I tried my best to follow the steps. I remember being
impressed that this little girl could remember these combinations and
move her legs so fast. The only thing I did effortlessly were the
splits, apparently I was naturally flexible. I found the class extremely
challenging and I loved the music, the movements matching the music, it
made me see a new form of expression. I found a challenge!!!! I began to take class two times a week, I gradually started going three times a week, and finally five times a week.
What
about high school you ask? Oh dear lord it sucked, the kids were the
same. They all worried if they were invited to parties or had 4.0's or if
the person they liked saw them the other day when their outfit was so
not cute and they had a pimple. Did I sympathize? not really. Did I
care....no. OK I cared that I didn't care. Luckily the main worry that everyone had; I had resolved. WHAT DO WE DO FRIDAY NIGHT?!....I was going to ballet damn it.
Eventually
my friends got used to me always going to ballet, so they stopped
asking me to hang out, they would have plans on those rare days I was
free. I became kind of lonely, but not mad. I had decided to embark on
this crazy journey.I understood they didn't mean to ignore me either. I
started going to this cafe where I sit right now. Here I met some really
cool people who were older than me, mainly my friend Justin. He writes
music, produced music, his life is music. I owe a lot to him, he made me
feel sane for not caring about all the things my friends cared for and
he also understood my passion for dance and the discipline the arts require (here's a link to his website http://justinfroese.com/)
As we fast-forward four years later:
I am at this cafe I said goodbye to friends before I go to
continue studying dance in NYC...little did I know where this would lead
four years ago....
now
LET THE GAMES BEGIN! 
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