The Best (And Worst) Parts of Summer 2016

   (This piece was originally written in September 2016. Enjoy!)

    The worst part of this summer had to be that I had to take a break from dance. Last November I started taking ballet lessons every Wednesday; But during the summer I do swim team and, unfortunately, meets are on the exact same days and time as class.
  Getting up early to swim twenty plus laps a morning in not the most enjoyable, but it is satisfying. While I thoroughly enjoyed butterflying and freestyling up and down the pool lanes, I was eager to get back to working on my pirouettes and grande jetes.

   One of the best parts of summer was definitely my family's trip to California. We flew out to a cabin at Lake Tahoe to celebrate my thirteenth birthday, my sister’s ninth birthday and my Aunt and Uncle’s twentieth wedding anniversary. All of my Tias and Tios came, along with my Abulita and Abulito.

  Our family originally is from California, but since we moved out to Kentucky six years ago we only get to see our relatives a few special times a year. Whenever we get the chance to fly out to the East Coast we always have to do a few certain things, which include going to the beach and seeing the ocean. We also got to go to the county fair, which is something that I haven’t been able to do since I was six.

  Another thing that I enjoyed doing this summer vacation was going to camp. For the last four years I’ve attended my county’s 4-H camp, and have always made great memories and friends. This year I got to go rock climbing, ziplining and swimming, among other things. I also got to do some archery. For target practice, our instructor would tape different playing cards to our targets to give us something smaller and more difficult to aim for. I ended up getting a bullseye and two cards in a row!

   This summer had a few ups and downs, but in all was a lot of fun- I wouldn't change it for anything

My Ballet Journey

(Quick note- this piece was originally written 9/22/16. Thanks for reading!)

Yesterday I got my pointe shoes!

  Pointe shoes are a stiff type of ballet shoe that allow you to actually walk- and dance, obviously- on the tip of your foot. Being able to wear them is a big step in dance, so it meant a lot to me when my teacher told me that I was ready.

  I only started ballet in November of 2015, and when I was telling my friends about this new endeavor they mostly replied with, “You’re doing dance? You don’t seem like that kind of person...” But I proved them all wrong: I started, and now I’m never going back.

 Anyways, back to the subject on hand. Yesterday before class, I went to the local dance store, Fabulous Feet Dancewear, to get fitted. Fittings can last anywhere from thirty minutes to a few hours! It just depends on how many shoes you have to try on before you find the perfect match.

   I sat down and, after measuring my feet, the owner of the store brought out multiple pairs of shoes. The first pair was too short, the second too skinny, and the third too tight. Two hours passed this way, putting on and taking off over twenty pairs, until we finally narrowed it down to two pairs. One, a light, soft coral; the other, a skin-tone white. I went back and forth between the two, finally deciding on the better fitting pink.

  Now that I’ve picked them out, I still have a lot more work to do. Since everyone is built differently, pointe shoes don’t come with ribbons already on- you have to cut and hand sew them to the shoe, to match your needs specifically. The same has to be done to the elastic, to make sure that it isn't so tight as to cut off the circulation to your foot, or so loose that it falls right off your foot.

  Even though it will take a lot of hard work and determination to learn to dance en pointe, I am very excited to get started!