Little things turn into big things, if only you let them.<\/p>\n
Coming to IMSA, I couldn\u2019t find words to describe myself. Like Willy Loman \u2013 from Death of a Salesman<\/i> \u2013 I chased after the thought of having a talent and being known as the <\/i>person without really knowing how to get there.<\/p>\n
As a sophomore, I went to two dance classes a week. Ballet was hard and it wasn\u2019t cool and just what if I didn\u2019t go this week, mom? I wasn\u2019t going to tour with a dance company or perform in the Nutcracker<\/i>; there was other stuff to do, like papers and tests and becoming a scientist. Classes were just something to do.<\/p>\n
Sometime in the fall, a new girl joined our class. Allie wasn\u2019t as flexible as the other girls in my ballet class, and she hasn\u2019t been dancing since birth, either. It was Allie\u2019s first or second year in ballet so I wasn\u2019t really sure how she was in the dance ensemble.<\/p>\n
But then I saw her in class. There would be a combination where it was clear the step was new to her, but she didn\u2019t let it faze her. Week after week, she gave even the simplest steps everything she had, leaving her red-faced and panting. She radiated energy. She wasn\u2019t effortless, not in the slightest. I could see how hard she tried just to get on the same level as the rest of the girls. As the year passed, her flexibility and technique improved in leaps and bounds. By the time she graduated, it seemed as though she\u2019d caught up on the years she\u2019d missed.<\/p>\n
Allie wasn\u2019t the best dancer at first but that didn\u2019t stop her from trying. Not a single step went without her attention. Even though Allie\u2019s gone off to college, her effort has stuck with me. The other girls in the class didn\u2019t try very hard at the barre or across the floor, but Allie did.<\/p>\n
So much effort must have seemed pointless with every failure or missed leap but at the end of the year, it led her to succeed. One hour doesn\u2019t make a dancer, but an hour a day, an hour a week\u2026 it grows into something bigger, something that\u2019s no longer just an hour, but a part of you, something that can be used to define you. Allie didn\u2019t start ballet until almost graduation \u2013 it\u2019s not too late to start something new. A false start or two, a year of shitty posters, or a poor dye job but then it\u2019ll come. The posters turn into shirt designs and you\u2019re making senior sweatshirt; the dye jobs turn into yours, someone else\u2019s, and then the entire hall\u2019s. Someone will notice, and they\u2019ll bring it up, and you realize that you may not be the best, but you\u2019re better than you used to be. Little things turn into big things. All it takes is time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Little things turn into big things, if only you let them. Coming to IMSA, I couldn\u2019t find words to describe myself. Like Willy Loman \u2013 from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":13134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1019],"tags":[1817],"coauthors":[1903],"class_list":["post-13137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-imsanews","tag-senior-speaks"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34586,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions\/34586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13137"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}