There is a saying that when one door closes a window opens. Failure is a part of life and without failure, there would be no success. When I was 18 years old, I was figuring out my direction and made the decision to go to college for dance. When going to school for performance or visual arts, you need to get in academically as well as into the department based on talent.
On the day of my audition, I was so nervous. I remember my anxiety building in my stomach as I stepped into the classroom in my leotard, tights, and shorts. I've had anxiety my entire life and stomach pain has always been associated with those feelings of fear, nerves, or anxiousness. When I was 4 years old I would get these same stomach pains. Doctors did numerous tests and could not figure out any issues. They tossed it up to a child being a big ball of stress and gave me tactics to bring my anxiety down by refocusing on walking in circles and rubbing my stomach. Needless to say, at 18 I hadn't learned how to control my stress levels and I tanked all three of my dance auditions.
I got into all three schools academically, but would not be in the freshman class of 2004 for the dance department. To be able to continue to build my dance skill set, I started to take a few general educational dance classes and begin to build relationships with department teachers. I knew that if I wanted to get into the department, it was going to be through hard work, determination, and connections. After a year of keeping my grades up and developing relations, I was able to reaudition and got into the dance department my sophomore year.
What did all of this teach me? I was able to find an open window even though a door was slammed in my face. I got to live out my dance dream.
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