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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I'm Back!

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I've posted; boy does time fly by! I've been out of town for two weeks, so I haven't had a chance to get to my computer until now. It's only two weeks, but it seems like I've been gone for much longer than that. There's a quote from the book The Happiness Project that says, "The days are long, but the years are short." These past couple weeks have been the opposite for me. The days themselves seemed to happen in a flash, but when I look back on my experiences as a whole, it seems like it lasted a while. I guess this is a positive thing because I learned a lot from the experiences that I had and I savored every moment of it.

After my last post, I was packing and preparing for my departure to Washington College. As I've mentioned before, I got a job at UCSCA as the dance teacher's assistant and a residential life counselor. We stayed there for a week and my job consisted of helping out during the dance classes and basically being in charge of the campers 24/7. I lived in a dorm with 7th and 8th graders and I was responsible for making sure that they were where they were supposed to be, behaving themselves, and getting to bed on time. "Lights out" was at 10:15 p.m., so it was pretty difficult getting teenagers to be in their rooms and settled down that early. There were stressful moments because there was a lot on my plate and it was my first experience being a counselor, but these challenges are what have made me a stronger person and a better leader.

I watched the dancers transform in only seven days and I am so proud after seeing what they pulled off in their final performance. Not only were the dancers great, but their teacher was amazing too. I loved her choreography and the way that she made every person look good in what they were doing despite the range in levels and styles of dancers. She choreographed a jazzy ballet piece to a Gershwin composition and a modern piece to "Turning Tables" by Adele that was absolutely incredible. She pulled so much emotion out of those girls during that dance that some of the other campers were brought to tears.

All of the counselors with hillbilly teeth thanks to our residential life director :)


Lady Gaga hair created by one of the campers


The whole dance class including the teacher, Danielle and myself

As soon as I got home from UCSCA, I was repacking for our family vacation. My family goes to Myrtle Beach every year and it's been a tradition for at least five years. This time at the end of the week on our way back up north, we stopped at Lake Anna in Virginia for a family reunion. This trip was much needed after the craziness of camp week. I lounged by the ocean, got my tan on, and apparantly I got too much sun because my lips got sun burnt and swelled up to twice their normal size one morning! Overall, I had a great time and it was good to see my family again.

On the car ride to Lake Anna, I was checking my email on my phone and I saw one from Broadway Dance Center. I found out that I got accepted into their Professional Semester program! I applied for it a couple weeks ago and it is basically like a semester at their studio in New York City :) I get to pick a style of dance to focus on during the three months that I will be there, I'll take 12 classes a week, there are master classes and lectures available, and I'll recieve networking and other training opportunities. New York is the number one city for dancers, so I could not be more excited. Also, I'm still searching for apartments in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, and I will have to move in about three and a half weeks. So, if anybody has any suggestions or knows someone looking to rent out their apartment for the fall, it would be greatly appreciated!

I had a little photoshoot with my friend Kaitlyn at a place called Turkey Point the day before I left for vacation, so I wanted to share with you some of my favorite dance shots.




2 comments:

S said...

love the photos of you and kaitlyn.

Unknown said...

Thank you!