This I Believe...

I believe in dance.
When I was young, it was just an activity that my parents put me in to get me out of the house. I dreaded my weekly dance classes. My parents would have to drag me out of the house insisting that I would have a better week and make a new friend. I would insist on staying in the car until my mom promised me some sort of reward if I just went to class. So then I went. The only thing I found exciting was the costumes that we got to wear at our yearly recital. Every week I would always ask "what are our costumes?" and I'm sure it annoyed the heck out of my teacher.
Once I became old enough to stand up to my parents, and slam and lock my bedroom door, I made my parents take me out of dance classes. A few years went by, and I guess you could say I became really bored. Out of nowhere, I started asking my parents to sign me up for a ballet class. Now they were hesitant, because they wanted to make sure that I would actually attend the classes.
After totally wrecking all the feelings in both of my feet, and having my feet hurt for long periods of time after I had taken off my pointe shoes, I realized that pointe was not the kind of dance for me. Unfortunately I became very angry, and then gave up dance again.
This was around middle school and early high school. During this time I went through a depression. My doctor suggested that I get involved in some physical activity. Now I have never been a sports person and I absolutely hated the schools that I attended, so I did not want to join anything at school. I thought for a while and my friend who was actually a professional ballroom dancer, and now a judge on a tv show and for many competitions suggested latin dance. She told me it changed her and brought so much more joy into her life. Now I was hesitant, at first because I had already tried the whole dancing thing, but she insisted that it would be different. So I thought I should trust the professional, and try it, and I did.
And I'm so glad I did. It just came natural for me. The dancing in the heels, the swinging of the hips, all the awkwardness. I can truly say that I have never felt so much joy in my life. I looked forward to my dance lessons twice a week, and I even took private lessons on the side. I found something that I LOVE to do and something that made me happy. I couldn't have asked for anything more in my life. So, of course, I have been dancing ever since. Which is why, I believe in dance. Dance gave me the power to become myself again.