I have been dancing for the past fifteen years of my life at a studio, which I called my second home, and on my school’s dance team. Some weeks I would spend more time with my teammates than I would with my friends and family. This took a toll on my social life because I would have to miss gatherings and always decline when given an invitation to one. The friends that I had outside of dance slowly dwindled away over the years due to the lack of time I was able to give them, and my relationships with my teammates were strained as well. While I was never the one to get jealous over a spot or placement of a solo, others were, so as we got older, jealousy crept in and started to erode our friendships. While I was able to get over the pain of those friends I lost and make new friendships, the wound that hurt the most was my studio’s undeniable favoritism. The favorites could easily be pointed out because they were in the front of every dance, which made it a struggle for me to build stage confidence and grow as a dancer. As I relentlessly tried to climb the pyramid and become a favorite as well, it created a fear of failure within me. Whenever I messed up during my technique classes, I would get upset with myself to where I would spend hours at home trying to perfect whatever it was. This blinded me from the amount of progress I had already made over the years. When my teacher told us to practice à la seconde turns, I would get nervous because I was not a turner, but I had to remind myself that at one point I could barely do two without wobbling, but now I am able to do more than eight. Reminding myself of the improvements I have achieved kept me grounded and reminded me of why I continued doing this. These experiences and choices created a push and pull in my life. Some days I wanted to take the uncomplicated way out and quit, but every time I thought about it, I was held back and became sentimental over the memories of me dancing on stage and growing up in the studio. Dancing was one of the things I could count on if I ever felt down and needed to express my feelings. So even though I would say that I wanted to quit, I knew deep down that I was never going to go through with it because it was something I had grown so passionate about and made me who I am today. Over the years I have learned how to be resilient through making mistakes and having the discipline to consistently practice on improving myself rather than being perfect. I have also become a better teammate who can support and help others when they need it because I know what it is like to be knocked down and how it helped me when someone was cheering me on. I plan to take these lessons that I learned from my experience in dance to help me become a good team member in the future when I pursue my career.