welcome, twenty-ten!
as this year and every other year comes to a close everyone seems to be turning towards their respective internet network of choice to recap on what they have become/accomplished/seen/etc. in the past 365 days. but 2009 is a bit different seeing as we are about to turn into a brand spanking new decade! it has been an overwhelmingly abundant 10 years for me, as well as the rest of the world. i was 10 years old when the ball dropped into midnight of january 1, 2000. i was in the fifth grade at old spanish fort christian school. i believe that was the year i discovered people make religion unbearable and i no longer needed an institution to tell me how my god works. that was my first year at a brand new school in a brand new city, daphne, alabama. i hated daphne with every fiber of my being. i went to two more schools while there and realized even further how difficult the human race can be. i also became a ballerina suprima in those years. i danced in several nutcrackers and cinderellas and what nots. i got my first pair of pointe shoes. i narrowly understood what was unfolding as i heard sirens screaming off the television as two buildings collapsed from an american sky. i heard the cries of a wounded yet stronger than ever society who was ready to show the world what they were made of. i lost a beloved grandfather. in 2003 i moved back to my hometown of birmingham and met my safe haven, the alabama school of fine arts. i grew up in those halls in so many respects. i made true friends. i became my own person. i became a better dancer yet lost my love of those pointe shoes. i got a boy to like me back and subsequently fell in love. i learned how to drive in a bright red f-150 in the developing backstreets of wesley chapel, florida. i experienced my first rocky horror picture show. i met my first car and gave someone else the privledge of naming her. i saw new york city for the first and second time and solidified my long time dream of living in that world. i saw canada and i saw six more states in the U.S. i got my heart broken and i lost one of my best friends to old age. i dated. i went to three proms. i had my first tastes of alcohol and never found anything better than the whiskey i would get from my dad when i was sick. i saw the U.K. i auditioned for juilliard wearing ballet shoes 3 or 4 sizes too large. i choreographed my first piece and it was about robots. i got accepted into the university of south florida and i finally graduated high school. my sister got married. i said good bye to all of this build up and began a new life further south. i acquainted myself with tampa, clearwater, st. petersburg and ybor city. i cried after my first day in college and didn't know why. i missed familiar faces, cold weather and the birmingham skyline. i had a seizure and was faced with a diagnosis i never saw coming, epilepsy. i lost the ability to drive for six months and moved into my first dorm room. there, i realized that i could actually enjoy and understand the appeals of university life. there, i fell in love again. i met many consequenses of my flippancy and lost many connections along the way. i went to my first usf football game in auburn, alabama and gloated in victory when the bulls closely defeated those damn tigers i had heard about my entire life. i became accustomed to the ways of the mosh pit. i met coheed and cambria and against me!. i tried out for the dance team. i read a book about bill t. jones. i was a sylphide for a night or two and pushed a piano on stage in front of an audience. i "found" modern dance. i learned a dance community did not have to be vicious and self-serving. i lost two of my dancing sisters due to circumstances that were to my eyes horrific and unfair. i moved into my first apartment. i attended the biggest audition of my life and screamed for joy for the first time in my life when i made the cut. i went to africa and learned the truth in the statement that dancing is indeed a universal language. i swam in the mediterranean in the middle of the night. and i plan on doing it again in 2010. 10 years ago, i was young and yet today i feel even younger. through all of this shifting and maneuvering i've learned that this life is a pretty big one, no matter what its length. the world is far too enormous for a life to become stale and uninteresting. to some people, 10 years may seem tiny and insignificant, and i suppose in the grand scheme of things it is. but i'm not going to let myself think that way. may the next 10 be just as magnificent and unforseeable!
posted by jump function at
3:28 AM
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