This weekend was my first
competition since May 2011; I competed in 12 dances and had a solo. I was so
nervous and so stressed out! The most stressful part about this weekend was
that the competition was on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I had no time for
anything besides dancing. Waking up at
5:30am and staying at the competition until 10pm was a pain, I had no time to
relax or anything because all of my dances were back to back. During the awards, my studio did really great
and I won first place for my tap solo. But, I kept on thinking to myself “do I
really want to keep on doing this?”, “do I really want to keep stressing myself
out, and not having any time for anything else but dance?.” I thought about this
all of Sunday night, and I realized that dancing is not what I want to do as a profession.
I need to focus more on college so I can get into a 4 year college and work on
getting my degree as being an elementary teacher.
Sunday night I talked to my mom
and told her how I felt, and she told me that I should cut down on dance
classes since I am already am taking a lot, I am struggling with my time
management, and that I really need to focus on college and getting my degree. I was speechless when she told me that,
because I knew that was she was right, but I didn’t want to cut down on dance
classes. Sometimes I think I can do
everything at once and on my own, but this past weekend made me realize that I really
can’t everything because it stresses me out and that I don’t have enough time
to do all of the things I want to do.
Cutting down my classes was
really hard for me because, I felt like I was letting my parents, my dancing
teachers, and my whole dance studio down. But in the end I need to realize that
this is what’s best for me so I mange my time, not be so stressed and focus on
college. Maybe if I get everything back on schedule I can start adding more
classes, but as of now I am only taking 6 classes instead of 12. I don’t think I would have realized or have
changed most of my problems if it wasn’t for writing blogs and getting feedback
from my classmates. But I know I am making the right decision, hopefully I will
have more time on my hands, and will not be so stressed.
This is such a powerful post. You mention your insane competition schedule, you reflect on your goal, and you act in your own long-term self interest. I know that must have been so tough!
ReplyDeleteHang in there! I was a college swimmer, and when I got injured, I had no idea what I'd do with my life. There are so few professional swimmers (and we age-out early!). But the dedication we take to our sports *can* be turned around and applied to careers. I promise you that!