From the time I was five years old, I knew I wanted to dance on the stage. I saw the Houston Ballet perform The Nutcracker, and when I came home, I danced the Sugar Plum Fairy solo in the living room, or at least my preschool version of it. From there it was a dance class, which became ballet classes, which became 20 hours of pre-professional ballet training a week at the Eastside Performing Arts professional training program in East Austin by the time I was 16 years old. The performing arts make us human. It separates us from other animals and as a species, we tell stories about the human condition through dance and theatre. I kind of knew this as a young girl, but I didn't know that artificial intelligence was coming and when it arrived, it would threaten the jobs of my schoolmates who dreamed of majoring in computer science or marketing. If there is anything AI cannot do, it's perform live in a human body for a human audience. This is one field where artificial intelligence is no match for human intelligence and creativity. I didn’t always fit in because of the hours I was in dance class, instead of hanging out with my peers at Round Rock ISD’s Westwood High School. While many of my classmates were cramming for their next IB exam or going to the basketball game, half of my day was dedicated to something to do with dance: ballet class, pointe class, contemporary, Horton, Pilates, rehearsals for the Youth America Grand Prix or ESPA’s productions of full length ballets like Don Quixote or Sleeping Beauty. But once I stepped on the stage, whether it be in Lewisville, or Houston, or San Diego or the Georgetown Palace Theatre, that didn’t matter anymore because the stage is where I belonged. I still did all the things I was supposed to do academically: graduate with a 4.3 GPA, be inducted into the National Honor Society, take six AP classes and score a 3 or above on all of them. When I got the email that I was accepted to one of the best dance schools in London, England with offers in both the ballet track and the contemporary track honors bachelor degree program, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was the next big step toward achieving my dream, just minutes away from the West End theatre district and the Royal Opera and Ballet, and a short train ride to Paris and points beyond in Europe. For the first time, It felt like my dreams might come true. Home is Texas though, and just like the dancers of the Houston Ballet inspired my journey, I hope one day to inspire the next generation of Texans to follow their dreams. I hope to create joy with my art and I hope to be living proof that the human mind and body is something high tech can never replace.