Stereotypes Essay: How Dancing Changed My Life

I honestly would have never thought I would be sitting here writing this essay. Three years ago as a freshman I didn't even think I was going to make it through high school. I didn’t have anyone to guide me and as a teenager I felt pressured all the time. Being stereotyped has always been a struggle hearing people saying “You won’t be better than your mother,” my own family believes that I won’t go anywhere, especially my mom. My mother getting re married , having a third child and putting all the responsibilities on me to clean cook and take care of the children because that’s the ways of a Mexican Catholic family. I had to find a way out, I had to find a way to keep my mind off of what society thinks I am. In my case, dancing has been the

Finding the space and time to participate in any type of dance possible at the moment was. Ecuadorian , Mexican, Colombian, Salvadorian and Dominican dance shared its part on my priority list. With every turn and step I made I felt I was becoming a better person everyday. Dance looks easy and fun but keeping the discipline to stay on my spot, hold the right number of steps, maintaining the same position of my feet and hands is hard. Rehearsal after rehearsal, blisters on my feet, bleeding ankles because of heels used to dance, and stinky sweaty clothes became a very important part of me. The days became brighter, and little by little I was happy with the person I was becoming. Even though family did not play a role in my life for a while it was good to know that there were other people supporting every step I took without even having the same drop of blood as me. Sooner than later within the crowd , on the stage with foreign music playing I found myself smiling after a long time of pain I found what I love the most . I no longer felt like a bird trapped in a cage but I felt like a bird in its natural habitat , being able to wander around and do anything I liked and needed to, to achieve the goals I had set for myself