I just had my first anatomy exam this past week and tomorrow I have my first macroeconomics exam. School is just chugging right along. It’s crazy to think that after this semester, I only have a year of undergrad left and then hopefully we’re off to dental school. I thought about that a lot this weekend and one of the things that I wanted to do was write a letter to past me and just reflect on how things were already so different from my freshman year. It’ll be cool to look back on this three-ish years from now too and see how different life is. It’s crazy to think about where I am right now and how far I’ve come! This post feels a lot more personal, so if you’re not here for that kind of stuff, I’ll get back to something else next week but this just felt important for me right now. 🙂
If you’re into these types of throwback-y posts let me know! It’s fun to relive memories! I’ve also thrown two pictures from freshman year in, so enjoy!
Dear Ana, I’m currently sitting in that really loud chair in your future apartment during your junior/senior/whatever-the-heck-we-wanna-call-it year as I write you this letter. You don’t know it yet, but you really like your apartment and it is such an upgrade from that homey little room you lived in freshman year. It’s been nice having no roommate, that’s for sure though. I remember how motivated and excited you were to beginning your college journey. You were so determined to be perfect in everything you did. You knew what you wanted to do and that has been one heck of a confidence boost as we’ve taken this journey that is college. When we first added that business minor, I started to think that might not be the greatest idea, but it hasn’t been the worst thing in the world. We’re just not a big fan of macroeconomics right now. 🙂 And then we decided to add the chemistry minor… Ana, you are so funny and a bit ambitious sometimes but we’re doing the best we can!!
Freshman year, you thought general chemistry was going to be the death of you but we actually learned that organic chemistry II was the bane of our existence. Yes, it sucked but we still survived! You thought that it couldn’t get better than your general biology courses, but I came to learn that physiology was actually one of the best classes I’ve ever taken and I’m currently really loving anatomy, despite the fact that there’s just so much to know. You were so eager to get into your more interesting, less general classes, and I feel like we’re definitely there now. Things are tough but they’re manageable and it’s helping make me a better student and more educated person.
I bet you never expected to live through a pandemic. That’s fully happening right now. Freshman year, the biggest thing you were concerned with was making sure no one found out that you were the one that threw up in the hallway that one night you randomly got super sick (cat’s out of the bag…. HAHA) and now I spend a lot of time cleaning and have to check to make sure I have hand sanitizer and a mask every time I leave my apartment.
The one thing I really miss about you, freshman Ana, was your confidence. We’ve lost that these past couple of years and I really miss the confidence in your silliness and just in yourself in general. We’re working on it now, but I hope we can get back to your energy and sureness one of these days. I remember that you were ambitious freshman year and little me, I just want you to know that we are exactly where we need to be. Maybe there were things you wanted to have accomplished by now that haven’t been accomplished, but I’ve come to learn that we are doing just fine. Everything leading up to this very moment has happened for a reason and everything is going to be great.
I’m proud of you for all you did and accomplished freshman year and I can’t wait to see what Ana another three years from now has to say! Keep your head up and stay awesome. 🙂
As I was prepping a post for this weekend I realized, I MISSED THE BEGINNING OF JUNE AND MORE SPECIFICALLY I MISSED MY OWN BLOGAVERSARY! To those of you that are relatively new here, hi, and welcome! 🙂 To those of you that have been here a while, you probably recall that I do a yearly blogaversary or blog anniversary post. Things have been so crazy lately and even though I’ve been doing most things from home lately, things seem to be moving so fast, maybe too fast.
June 7, 2014 was the day my first blog was posted. I was so little then if you think about it. 🙂 Just a naive, little scared freshman in high school. And now here I am, a junior/senior at university getting ready to take a big exam to take me to the next potential chapter of my life. Time does fly! On that day, I didn’t really know where this blog would take me but I did know that I had a love for writing and a strong passion for editing too so I took advantage of the opportunity my dad gave me.
Since that day, I’ve posted almost every Sunday. That’s so crazy to think that I’ve been doing this for SIX YEARS now! Six years of worth of Sundays are quite a few Sundays if you ask me.
One of my favorite things to do is look back and see what my writing was like in 2014 or 2015. I’ve removed a few posts just because they didn’t seem relevant to my blog as much as they did when I was 15 but it has been really interesting to also see where the world was at and where I was at then. I was in a boot at one point and then I was getting ready for surgery and then I was stressed about all three of my AP exams and then I was applying to college and then I was getting ready for college and then I was beginning college and all of the sudden I’m here. Crazy, right?!
And so it’s a happy belated blogaversary to me! Haha. 🙂 As I post this, my blog has 13,016 views and 300 posts. Thank you all so so much for your time and for letting me share my life story and also my passion for writing. It’s been a blast. 🙂 It’s exciting to see how far I’ve come and I look forward to the many more posts and adventures to come! If you’ve got any ideas or there’s something you really want me to talk about, reach out! I’d love to hear from you!!
Thanks for being here on this journey with me. I appreciate you spending time here. Have a good week and I’ll see you next Sunday!
Just woke up in Greeley. And how fitting, the wallpaper was literally just a bunch of cows. 🙂
This is definitely a Monday post. Sunday was too much. I had an organic chemistry exam this morning too and that was too much. Anyway! This past weekend I had the opportunity to compete in the Miss Colorado USA 2020 pageant. Those of you that have been around will recall that I also competed last year. Yipee!
My mom, sister, and I arrived in Greeley on Friday night and from there, the weekend flew by. I competed in interview, swimsuit, and evening gown and also got to be on stage for a big introduction which was super fun. This year I wore a yellow (maybe more on the orange side though) two-piece swimsuit (eeeeee) and for evening gown, my dress was very sparkly and gold. I will post more pictures of all of my outfits to this post when they come in. 🙂 Or I can make a separate post about that. Just let me know what you all would prefer!
In my interview, I talked with the judges quite a bit about my published academic work on Pyrrhura molinae (aka Bobo and his green cheek conure crew) and kickboxing. They asked about Hawaii and I shared a lot. It went really well. I also got to be in the room BY MYSELF because the girl before me dropped the pageant which was sad. More time for the judges to listen to me though I guess.
Out of the entire weekend, I feel like swimsuit was my favorite to compete in. I was absolutely terrified to go out on stage wearing a two-piece swimsuit but in the end, I was proud of myself for doing that. I don’t know many other people that would do something like that! I’ve been working incredibly hard to get my body to a place that I’m proud of and I’m still not quite where I want to be but I am incredibly proud of myself for coming to where I am after being injured for so long.
It was so fun to meet so many other amazing young ladies and I wish them all the absolute best in everything they do. It always feels so good to be around so many other good people. In addition to this, I would like to thank Future Productions fo putting another fun and flawless weekend and show! It has been wonderful getting to know your staff and getting to work with you all. I would also like to congratulate the new Miss Colorado USA, Emily DeMure. You crushed it, girl! You’re going to be amazing. 🙂 If you’re interested in checking out the pageant, check out the official website!
Now the question comes, will I compete again? I’m really not sure. I had fun and I’ve enjoyed being at Miss Colorado for the past two years, but after being extremely stressed about school the entire weekend, I don’t know if I want to put myself through that again. Yes, I still had a wonderful time, but school is also incredibly important to me. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Have a wonderful week everyone! And to those of you that are also in Colorado, stay warm! We’re about to get some cold, cold weather and snow! 🙂 Woohoo! See you next Sunday.
So today’s my twentieth birthday. Wow. Two decades around the sun. 🙂 That sounds pretty cool to me. Some would also say it’s my golden birthday, because I’m twenty on October 20th so that’s pretty cool. The past couple of years I’ve posted around my birthday, I’ve made it a post about the different things I’ve learned since my last birthday and I really like that so I’m going to keep doing that. So on this lovely day that is October 20th, my golden birthday, here are twenty things I’ve learned, relearned, or thought a lot about on this trip around the sun:
Taking summer classes will take a toll on you. I thought I was going to burn out for a second there when the fall semester started this year. Oh boy. I feel like taking a class or two wouldn’t be the worst but taking 11 credits this summer was actually so mentally exhausting.
Homemade burrito bowls beat all other burrito bowls. I’m a big fan of Qdoba don’t get me wrong, but when my family and I make burrito bowls at home, they’re actually the best thing ever. And they’re so filling and you know that the chicken isn’t going to be burnt.
You can’t always get what you want. This applies to a lot of things in life but I’m really applying this to the Game of Thrones finale. Guess the House Targarygen is going to have to find another way to rule the Seven Kingdoms for longer than about three seconds before going absolutely mad.
Hard work pays off. This is something I’ve always known but I really found that out after making the Dean’s List my first year of college. I feel like I really set myself up for success. This also applies to my sports and other stuff. Putting in the time and effort to perform as well as you want to really pays off.
It’s okay to feel sad. This may be one of the more serious and real things I’ve learned this past year, especially after Marty passed away. I feel like I’ve always thought I have to be this perfect, happy girl all the time but that’s really not the truth. I have emotions and I’m honestly tired of pretending that everything is okay all the time. Bottling up my emotions hasn’t helped anything so it’s about time that I started expressing how I feel more often.
It’s okay to cut ties with people. I’ve met a lot of really nice people in my life so far and I’ve also met a lot of people I hope I’m in the same room as, ever again. Regardless of how I feel about a person, I still treat them with respect and treat them like a person but I now feel okay telling myself that I don’t need that person in my life and that it’s okay to not be everyone’s best friend.
Adult tournaments are where the fun is at. This past summer I had a lot of fun playing tournaments and leagues and also just hitting with my sister and dad. With the exception of being pegged in the thigh earlier today on a serve, playing the adult tennis stuff has been so much more enjoyable and uplifting than junior tennis. There still is the sense of competition but there’s also so much less pressure and unnecessary drama and crap. It’s the best. I’ve also met a lot of really amazing and sweet people through tournaments so I feel blessed to have the tennis opportunities I have had.
Teaching tennis has its ups and downs. So you might remember that I made a post a couple of weeks ago about how much I loved coaching little kids. Yes, I still do, but literally the weekend after that post when I taught WAS AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Oh my goodness the kids were little monsters. And honestly that’s ok. There are going to be days where the kids are great and I suck or vice versa. It’s not always going to be perfect and things won’t always go the way I want them to when I coach. I’m there for the good, the bad, and the ugly, that’s for sure.
College really is better than high school. People are just so much more mature (there still are a lot of weirdos and immature idiots, but won’t there always be?) and everything is just so much better. The classes are more interesting, I have more freedom, and I’ve met some really incredible and wonderful people that I feel lucky to call my friends. 🙂
It’s important to put the technology away every once in a while. Nowadays too many people are glued to their iPads, phones, laptops, and other electronic devices. Instagram is not your life, breaking a streak on Snapchat will not end your friendship with a person, and being offline for a couple of hours a day will not end your life. I think it’s more important to live in the real world than the virtual world and remember things for how they are. Pictures and videos are great to have as memories, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I think it’s better to just live in the moment.
Kickboxing is so much fun. I’ve always wanted to try kickboxing and then I discovered that the rec center at CSU has a class and I decided to try it. It’s so fun and what I love most about it is how rhythmic it is. It’s similar to dance that there’s a beat to stick to and there are combos and you’re supposed to be very light on your feet. It’s so so so much fun. And it always kicks my butt too which I enjoy.
Having a suite mate sucks. I’ve been locked out of my bathroom five times this year already. And I’ve been nice about reminding my suite mate to unlock it. She’s loud. She honestly scares me a little too. It’s an experience, let me tell ya. But beside that, I still enjoy having a room to myself and it’s all been great. I feel like I could definitely have a roommate, but not in the same room like last year and I feel like I will never want to have a suite mate like I currently do ever again in my life.
Bobo liking Taylor Swift is one of the cutest things ever. For those of you that don’t know I have a pet bird, well now you know that I have a pet bird! His name is Bobo (at least we say he’s a he) and he loves Taylor Swift. Any time my sister or I play her music, he’s bobbing up and down and jamming out. It’s pretty dang cute.
Traveling is so much fun. This past summer after I visited my friend in California by myself, I realized how much fun traveling is. I’ve always enjoyed traveling but this past trip really got me excited to travel. I really want to go on more trips with my family, especially to Universal Studios in Florida or California and ESPECIALLY to Russia. It’s been a dream of mine to go there for soooooo long now.
Don’t be so serious all the time. This one is something I’ve learned from teaching tennis and being with little kids so much. They just love life so much and they’re always so excited and just adorable. They’re just living life as it is and taking advantage of every opportunity they get. I want to be more like that. I still work hard and take things very seriously, but I’ve learned that there are some places and things that you just need to relax on. Sometimes you just need to let go and be less uptight and worried. Everything will work out in the end.
Going off of that last one, I’ve also learned that self-care is so important to being a functional human being. Whether that means I take more study breaks, work out more, drink more water, or treat myself to something tasty or sweet every once in a while, I’ve found that taking more time to help myself out has made me a happy, more functional person. I’m more able to then help others when I feel like I’m doing ok.
Having a sister for a best friend is the best thing ever. She’s always there for me and she’s someone I know I can laugh with, cry with, and even rant with. Allyson has been the best, best friend ever and I feel so lucky to have such a hilarious, smart, and adorable little sister to go through life with. Siblings make life so much more fun.
There’s a time and a place to say what you want to say. I feel like in our society today, there’s a lot of tension and hatred and overall weirdness. There’s honestly so much I could say about everything regarding our world, our government, and politics in general but I choose not to. I’ll say what I want to say, when I want to say it. I’ve noticed that there really are only certain people I can share with, which is kind of sad because a lot of other people will tell me I’m wrong or close-minded. And I’m not close-minded which is also sad! People just aren’t willing to listen or believe that there are other opinions out there. I feel like we all just need to stop that kind of mindset and understand that people have differences and that’s fantastic. People can’t get along if they can’t accept that and I just wish more people were willing to do that, our world would be a much friendlier and successful place.
Saying no is a magical thing. I’ve always known this too but I feel like in the past I’ve avoided telling people no because I worry about how it will make them feel. If I don’t want to sign your petition, I’ll let you know. If I don’t think something sounds good, I’ll let you know. I’ve always considering honesty to be the best policy, and that still holds true. I just feel like I’m getting better about helping others with the advice and guidance I give them. Or at least I hope I’m getting better with it, haha.
Family matters so much. I’ve always known this but with some of the stuff that has happened this past year in my life, I’ve really seen how powerful and amazing having a family is. My family provides so much support, encouragement, guidance, and love and I just appreciate everyone in my family so much. They’re always there regardless of what the situation is. I’ve had a lot of fun times with my family and made so many great memories and I feel so lucky to have the family I do. They mean the world to me.
And that’s that! There’s always more than the lists I’ve provided, but this is what has come to mind. Today has been a wonderful day and I’ve felt so loved and appreciated today and it’s honestly nice to feel that kind of love and get all that attention every once in a while. 🙂 It’s cool that my golden birthday fell on my 20th. Not sure why I feel that way but I do. It feels like this year is going to be a good one. 🙂
I hope you’ve all had a great Sunday and have a good week! See you next Sunday!
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to grow up playing tennis. I feel like I learned so much in terms of the fundamentals and strategy. I learned a lot about how to be a good athlete and how to also just be a good person in general! Now I’ve been able to share that knowledge with young players trying out tennis and I feel so overjoyed with the entire experience! Who knew teaching tennis could be so fun?!
In Fort Collins, there’s this wonderful facility I’ve been playing tournaments at since I was like twelve, and a little over a month ago, I became one of the instructors for their Saturday classes. Since that first day, teaching tennis on Saturdays has become a highlight of my week.
Lessons start at 10 for the first group, which includes 4-6 year olds and their class goes for forty-five minutes. Being with the little littles is so cute and so fun. They’re all so excited to tell you about the new dinosaur toy they got or that they went to the park this past summer. And the littles are always so curious about tennis, or at least the ones I coach are. They really want to try and get good and I love it!
The next class I teach on Saturdays starts at 11 and goes for an hour and a half. That group is the 10U class. We have from 2nd-5th graders in that class and that’s a pretty good group too. With this class, there’s a lot more variety in the skill even though I would still classify all of my players in that class as beginners. It’s challenging, but I enjoy finding different ways to help different players. Getting to share little tips and tricks that have helped me is always a lot of fun. This group LOVES to play games and I love their excitement for that, but I’ve really learned that you have to lay down the law and establish the fact that you’re the coach and you’re going to do things in a certain order. If you don’t lay down the rules and set out a schedule, you’re going to get trampled by those 3rd graders, let me tell ya.
After that class finishes, I have a short lunch break and then I’m back on the courts for two hours with the middle school and high school kids. Once again, a majority of the players are just getting into tennis, but this group can understand more of the terminology I’m used to hearing so I feel like this class is where the fun really is and where the potential really exists. It exists with the younger kids too but it’s amazing how vocabulary and just being a bit older makes such a difference when trying to explain something! We hit a lot of groundstrokes and do a lot of feeding with this group because most of them can’t hold a rally but that’s ok! Teaching tennis is about tailoring to the needs of the players and also the coaches, as I’ve found out.
With all of my classes, I’ve really enjoyed getting to see players progress throughout the weeks I’ve worked with them. There’s this one little girl in my 10U class, and when I first started working with her, she could barely get the ball to the net. Two weeks ago, she hit her first tennis ball over the net and I was THRILLED for her. I don’t think she got what all my excitement was about but it’s fine. 🙂 Today, she hit at least five balls over the net and her strokes are looking much better and stronger in general and I LOVE THE PROCESS AND PROGRESS I GET TO SEE AND BE A PART OF!
Being in the teaching position now, I really have to thank my dad for his patience and ability to work with my sister and I. Now I know what it really feels like! To sum it all up in three points, I’ve learned that:
It’s better to break things down so the kids can follow some basic steps and I’m not spending a majority of the lessons talking.
It’s important to spend a little bit of time with each kid, helping them find one or two things to focus on.
City Park isn’t nearly as fun as the park at Fossil Creek in Fort Collins after going to the Denver Zoo. (Thanks to one of the kids in my little lobbers class for letting me know!)
I know that teaching tennis won’t always be easy and fun but I’ve really enjoyed my introduction to the teaching world so far. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks and months!
I hope you all have a wonderful week. If you’re in organic chemistry, physics, or both (like unfortunate me), stay strong and good luck with any exams you have coming up. I have both exams Tuesday, back-to-back, so we’ll see how that goes. See ya next Sunday!
I hope you’re all having a great summer so far. I know it has been one crazy summer for me with all of my classes and everything, but it has still been a fun one. My sister just recently decided to update her website and fully commit to keeping up her blog (YAY) so I invite you all to check it out at allysonhorvath.com!
She’s a fantastic creative writer and she’s planning on posting about regular-everyday stuff as well as her creative writing pieces like poems and some critiques. She has the full layout as to what she plans to post and she also plans to post more frequently than I do, haha. From what I can remember, Sundays will be regular blog days, Mondays will be movie and music reviews, and Thursdays will be short stories and poems. A lot of fun stuff is in store at allysonhorvath.com. 🙂 I’m most excited for the poems and short stories she writes!
She’s had the domain and website up for a long time. She just hasn’t been able to get around to writing and I’m SO EXCITED that she’s finally going to keep it up. She’s a super talented writer and sometimes I don’t think she believes that. I’m hoping you’ll all go show her some love and support and check it out.
Sorry this post isn’t all that exciting I just really wanted to give Allyson’s blog a shoutout today and give her some support. 🙂 I’ll see you all next Sunday!
Well my friends. Here we are again. Another year, another blogiversary. Yay for more blogging! Including this post, we have reached 247 posts, a lot of pictures and way over 10,000 views. For all of that and for all of you I say thank you. 🙂
Thanks again for being here to read everything I have to say. Thank you for being here to listen to my rants and hear about my adventures and struggles and journey through life. Blogging really is just so much fun. If you’re bored and looking for something to do, I totally recommend blogging. There’s really a lot you can do with it!
It’s crazy to think that little, high school freshman me started this off and here I am now, a sophomore in COLLEGE still writing for the same blog. I’m clearly boot-free by now (anyone been around since then? haha), still have my sweet little, wonderful doggies Marty and Boo, gained a feathery friend (was Bobo in the last Blogiversary??), learned that chemistry is super hard and NOT a favorite class of mine, and of course continued to spend time and love life with my wonderful family and friends.
It’s crazy to think that this will be my last Blogiversary as a teenager too. The big 20 is coming up in October. It’ll be my golden birthday too! I’ve got two-and-a-half years left of college. My sister goes OFF to college this upcoming fall. I take the DAT for dental school NEXT summer. Life is happening so fast, wow. With that in mind though, it’s important to be thankful for what we have in the moment and cherish it all right as it happens.
With that in mind, I hope you all have a wonderful week. I’m so thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to pick up blogging and share my life and thoughts will you all. Don’t forget to live in the moment and be thankful for even the little things. 🙂 See you next Sunday.
This past Monday, this blog hit a big milestone in my opinion. We reached 10,000 views! To some of you, you may be thinking, “Yeah, 10,000 views, whatever. That really means nothing. Not that big of a deal.” That’s ok if that’s what you think, but to me, this was a pretty big deal. That means that people are reading this blog and what I write! And hopefully that means that you’re enjoying what I’m writing and feel inclined to come back every week. So for that, and for this week’s blog I’d just like to take some time to reflect on the life of my blog and say thank you, 10,000 times.
I really never thought this blog would amount to anything to be completely honest. I started doing this all for myself to share my love for writing and put my thoughts and feelings and ideas somewhere I could look back on later in life but I never really thought that others would get on board.
Disregarding my welcome post, my first actual blog post was published June 8, 2014 and it was about some tips for tennis tournaments. From there, I posted about a variety of things, that those of you who’ve been around a long time probably know about.
I wrote about my two injuries, both to my sesamoid on the bottom of my left foot as well as my peroneal tendon subluxation and eventual surgery on my left ankle. During the two years I dealt with injury and wasn’t really able to play any sport at the level I was used to at the time, this blog and my website were a great place for me to put my energy and time into. I was able to share my thoughts and love for the things I do and love in life here and I think that my blog really helped keep me sane during that time of my life.
I shared experiences from my numerous trips to New Mexico and also Omaha, Nebraska, New York, and most recently Hawaii. I’ve talked about all of my breaks during school from getting off of summer break, to spending time with family during Thanksgiving break, to the joys of winter break, and also spring break, which I recently came back from. Even just my adventures around Colorado are written about here on my blog, and those have been a lot of fun to go back and look through.
This blog has been a place for me to share stories of times with my families and my sweet, amazing little dogs, Marty and Boo. And when Bobo, my green-cheeked conure became a part of my family, you all heard about that too.
From the time I started high school, to graduating near the top of my class, you’ve been with me. From the beginning of my college experience to March 31st, 2019, you’ve been here too. From every goofy, random post about polar bears and my favorite foods to eat on rainy days, you’ve been here and listened to what I have to say and I really, really appreciate it.
So thank you. Thank you all for being here to hear what I have to say. Thank you for sticking around, through good and bad posts and good and bad times. Thank you for hopefully enjoying what I write and giving me something to get excited for. Getting ready to post on Sundays has become one of the highlights of my weeks and thinking of post ideas has become a really fun part of my week too.
So here’s to the next 10,000 views. I’m excited to see what’s in store for this blog and my website and the future in general! Thanks again for being the amazing people you all are. Thank you for taking a little bit of time out of your day to read this blog and spend some time with me. Have a good week everyone. 🙂
Here’s the song that my solo was to. The dance was only two minutes but the song itself is around five. Enjoy 🙂
Hi everyone! Just a quick note before this post: this piece is something I put together for my honors seminar on movement and dance. So, there might be a couple of quotes and also a works cited at the bottom of this. Haha sorry but plagiarism is no joke! I also have to cite myself to avoid self-plagiarism. What a world! Anyway, we were asked to reflect on our movement history and for this, I focused more on dance. Honestly, if I involved everything, this would be a 400 page novel. I hope you enjoy!
At the age of four, my parents enrolled me in ballet classes at the School of Ballet Nouveau Colorado. It was no surprise that I began ballet classes at a young age considering that my mom also took ballet classes until she was fifteen. Ballet has always been a passion of my mom’s and tennis and volleyball have always been my dad’s passions so there was absolutely bound to be activity in my life. My mom wanted a place for me to be active, make friends, and develop good posture and flexibility, so ballet was the first activity for me to try. I was always on the move as a child and so my mom figured ballet would be the perfect place to become connected with my movement and experiment with the different, more graceful movements associated with ballet.
As a toddler I excelled in my basic, baby ballet classes. My teachers praised me for my long legs and posture and quickly advanced me. I soon found myself working on tendus, battements, and pliés at the barre with the six year olds, which was quite intimidating considering that some of the girls were a foot taller than me. I feel that I was at an advantage because of how my parents raised me. I was a very sheltered and protected child who received a lot of love and care from both of my parents. The love, care, and attention from my parents, all “environmental factors”, contributed to how aware I was of my body as a four year old and helped me pick up ballet and all other activities I participated in easily. The attention and support from my parents allowed me to understand that I was taking ballet classes for fun and to enjoy being a kid over anything that some ballet school or society expected of me. I danced at Ballet Nouveau until I was six and then I wouldn’t dance again for another four years.
When I turned ten, I began taking hip hop classes at a local dance studio. The new loud, different music and quick, sharp movements proved to be much more challenging for me, but I stuck with it. This time around I was much less afraid of the older kids and I used being the youngest to my advantage. When we first began learning dances, I acted as a copycat to the girl standing in front of me. Her movements became my movements and her expressions became my expressions. The hip hop world appeared to be quite different from the culture and background I was accustomed to but it was fresh, exciting, and fun to explore. Like with the girl in my hip hop class, I became a mini replica of the hip hop dancers I watched on the internet, following their every move. This technical approach allowed me to “copy a dance technique that [was] identified and valued as worthwhile for training” and once I became more confident in my abilities, I added my own expression and personality to my movements. After my first hip hop performance on stage at my studio’s recital, I felt so invigorated and proud. I knew that I wanted to continue dancing. The following dance season, I made the competition hip hop team at my dance studio and loved every second of it. That team went on to win gold and platinum for both of our dances at two of the three competitions we competed at in the spring. I competed with the same hip hop team for another dance season and even added tap to my repertoire.
After those two dance seasons, volleyball and dance overwhelmed my schedule so I was unable to dance with my studio’s competitive teams, but I was able to perform a solo at the recital. As “Dancing Shoes” by DEV played at the recital, I gained more air off of each leap that I performed. My heart pounded to the beat of the music as I looked out past the bright lights to find my parents and sister in the crowd. As my solo came to an end, I could really do nothing but smile. I had truly missed dancing for a year and so having the opportunity to perform a solo I had worked so hard on was incredible. Dance was no longer just a hobby to me, but it had become an art form. Dance had meant something special to me with my past competitive dance seasons but it had become something powerful after my solo. Dance had evolved to become a celebration of experience and progress. Dance could “function as entertainment [or] therapy” for when I felt bored, sad, angry, or even happy. This gave me a deeper appreciation of the sport and art that I had spent hours practicing and dedicating my life too.
The next competitive dance season, I was able to join my studio’s competitive teams again. I had added jazz and lyrical to my list of classes too. In addition to all of these classes and training, I was also taking ballet and technique classes in order to strengthen my muscles and perfect every little movement to appear flawless onstage. One of my most vivid dance memories was from my Thursday night technique class when I had already been in the studio for three hours and was finishing my night. I was exhausted and my teacher had us working on tours en seconde. I was struggling to get the rhythm down and kept losing momentum. All of the other girls in my technique class were executing tours en seconde beautifully and I was not. As I was getting ready to leave the studio that night, my teacher pulled me over and we had a conversation about my struggles. She noticed that I was frustrated and talked with me about my tours en seconde. My teacher told me that I shouldn’t compare myself to the other girls or stress about the situation. She helped me feel much more relaxed and less worried about how I danced in comparison to others. Society often builds us up to compare ourselves to others when looking at flawless people in magazines and on TV and social media, but that is not the real world. Realizing that the only person I need to compare myself to is me was enlightening. This helped me realize that I need to let go of my tensions when dancing and working on new skills. I learned that the mind will “guide the body through the imperfections of the movement” and this idea enabled me to feel more confident in my dancing abilities and allowed me to grow my passion for dance because I was dancing for myself, not for the approval of others.
Unfortunately, that competitive season of dance would be my last. During competitive season, I injured my foot either in ballet or jazz class. I performed all season in pain thinking that the injury was no big deal. My injury was unfortunately no pulled muscle or overworked joint but a bone fracture that eventually wiped out my possibilities of ever going on pointe. (Those of you that have been around know about this one!) It also made dancing competitively at the level I previously danced at practically impossible because of all of the strain and impact my foot and ankle would suffer. So from that point until now, I have danced but not like I once did. I have worked to come back to dance as best I can but even through training, my ankle will never be the same. I’ve learned to accept that “some differences between [physical capabilities] need to be celebrated rather than fought” and I’ve come to appreciate the experiences and opportunities dance gave me while I was still a healthy dancer.
Through dance, my mom was able to live through me and my dad was able to experience a sport he’d never dealt with much. My sister was able to have a friend to dance alongside and I was able to share my passion for dance with my family and friends when they asked me to perform for them at family get-togethers. While I may not be able to dance as well as I used to, I still play tennis and maintain the high level of activity and discipline that dance instilled in me. I still enjoy the sense of rhythm and ability to explore movement as well as the many wonderful cultures dance is associated with. I may no longer be the little Polichinelle I once was or ever become the Clara I could’ve been, but I can still watch both girls on old videos and the internet and love the movement and music and art for what it is.
Horvath, A. (2019). Every Body Has a History. Unpublished manuscript, Colorado State University Nadel, Myron Howard, and Marc Raymond Strauss. The Dance Experience Insights into History, Culture, and Creativity. Princeton Book Company, 2014. Schrader, Constance A. A Sense of Dance: Exploring Your Movement Potential. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2005.
These kinds of posts are always fun for me to write. I wish that there was a way for me to able to get to know all of you, my readers a little better, but I’m not quite sure how! There’s a post I wrote in 2017 sharing a couple of facts about myself, and I feel like there’s a lot you still don’t know, so here’s some more stuff about me that you might wanna know! Check out the link that I’ve attached to read that post too. 🙂
I’m 5′ 8″. When I was younger, I also grew waaaaay too fast. My body had a lot of fun adjusting to that.
I’m a biology major at Colorado State University. I’m in the honors program also and I’m on the pre-dental track.
The Selection by Kiera Cass is my all-time favorite book series ever.
I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 17. I was sick the day I went in for my picture also, so it’s a terrifying little card to look at. Haha.
I love boots. My favorite brand currently is Freebird but I also enjoy a good pair of fuzzy, warm UGGs. Ankle boots, combat boots, knee high boots, you name them and I probably have them… I actually want to get a job at Freebird over the summer so I can get discounts on their boots and just be around a super cute store. 🙂
I’m missing a tear duct in my right eye. I can still cry out of my right eye, it just means that it’s constantly teary. So I get the question, “Have you been crying” or “Are you okay?” frequently. Thanks genetics!
I still hate oatmeal. The texture is just not a favorite. I also have a really hard time eating yogurt. It’s just something about the texture as I eat it over time…
I made the Dean’s List my first semester of college. Woohoo!
Holographic things intrigue me a lot. I can thank one of my favorite YouTubers, Simply Nailogical for that.
I’d love to see Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic play in person. I’ve seen them play on TV and they’re just amazing players, but I would just be over the moon if I had the opportunity to actually watch them play. Also, this might totally be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t like Serena Williams as a tennis player! Her style just doesn’t impress me. I respect her, but I just don’t like her.
So I hope you enjoyed these ten facts about me. Some of them are pretty random, but they’re kinda fun and silly and I hope you enjoyed them and learned something new on this Sunday haha. Have a wonderful week everyone!
