The Importance of Following Your Passion

One day you wake up knowing that what you love to do may never be a choice. Something that you have worked your entire life for may just disappear in a blink of an eye. It's a scary feeling huh? People have always fed thoughts into my head. Saying "you're never going to get to where you want to be”, "the industry is too competitive", "you don't have what it takes".

The more these thoughts were fed into me, the more I started to believe them. To be fair, all these things may be true but if the passion lies within then that's all that matters. Then even the impossible can become possible.

Dancing is something that my heart, soul, mind, and body lies in. I spend most of my hours in the studio. Exploring, learning, dancing, teaching, and performing. It was where I was allowed to be the happiest as well as the most vulnerable. It allowed me to express myself with no judgment, but If needed it allowed me to leave my problems out. When I was desperate to talk to someone I always knew that dance would hear me out and help me understand. It was almost like a living dream. Where the good gives you hope and the bad just floats away. It was everything and more that I could have asked in my life as it made me feel alive. Nothing made me more alive than dancing. Until one day I snapped my knee. And my whole world stopped. I didn't know how to think straight, how to make a conversation, how to live life without crying or yelling. I suddenly felt lonely, my heart felt empty and my mind felt heavy. I couldn't differentiate right from wrong. And I lost the purpose of life. Because the thing that put the biggest smile on my face was taken away from me. A year went by with minimal improvement. I already had lost a crucial year of growing and learning as a dancer, and also a year of exploring and trying new things as a person, cause I was so caught up on the idea that without dance I didn't have a life worth living.

After finally getting better and starting dance again, I went on this trek, the outcome was an injured ankle and knee. I was broken, I couldn't study well, I couldn't make a proper conversation. As a result, I started losing friends, not going out, losing sleep, and dropping grades. But when it hit me I realized that I am letting an injury control my whole life. From that day I vowed to myself that I am going to live my life to the fullest, cause a day gone cannot be gotten back.

However hard these years have been it showed me that nothing lasts forever, and if you have the will you will control life and make the best out of it. If I'm not dancing, I'm always watching others dance. Seeing what they are good at and making mental notes on what I could improve on. If I stop dancing that doesn't mean I stop growing. I'm always growing by observing, experiencing and listening.

Nobody can take away your passion, It’s what lives in your heart. Nobody can say or do anything to take that away from you, not even yourself.