Danced my way to success

Here’s a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a while. I started dancing at the age of five. By roughly 10 years old I was in dance class 3-4 times a week. By middle school it consumed me so I had to drop off the track and field team. 

Go to school, get on the bus to dance class, do homework on the bus and in the green room, take class, get back on the bus. This amounted to my formative years. I didn’t play with friends every day of my life the way my son does today. I studied dance and school. 

So, where did it get me? Dance was largely responsible for getting me into a great school like Southern Methodist University and getting me enough scholarship to actually be able to attend. Yes, I had academic scholarship too, but I never would have chosen SMU had it not been for my pursuit of dance.

More importantly, it made me what I am today: committed, focused, organized, detail-oriented, able to handle disappointment and comfortable with change. Frankly, it groomed me to succeed as a small business owner and a consultant. I am now convinced of that. 

My son isn’t into dance, I get that. But I wish I could discover something that energizes him in the same way dance did for me. What we do early, or don’t do, is so important to what we wind up being in the end.