Here's to all the dancers who aren't dancing
Maybe this was the first time you didn’t dance at Oireachtas, maybe it’s the fifth. It’s hard to see your old family doing the thing you love without you.
Here’s to the girls who look at those pictures and decide it’s time to go back. Here’s to the girls who are so happy they had that in their lives, but are happy where they are now too.
Dance might have been your whole life, but it’s okay to move on and have new goals. It’s okay to still love dancing and competing but putting other goals above dance for awhile. There are people who can do school and dance, but it’s okay if you can’t.
Its hard to look at pictures of girls you used to dance with, maybe even just a few months ago, and wonder how you would have done. I feel like this community gets wrapped up in itself sometimes and you feel like you have to hang on to dance forever. It’s okay to let go, to redefine your relationship with dance as you grow.
Here’s to girls becoming women and making hard choices. Here’s to taking the lessons you learned with dance with you into the real world. Here’s to always having a place for it in your heart. Here’s to dancing on your own terms, whatever they may be.
I mostly wrote this for myself, but hopefully someone else finds it helpful. I’m so proud of all of you.
