The Importance of Being Encouraging

Mentorship.  It's something we all need, yet we rarely acknowledge that need.  This is a topic that Dr. Wesley Desselle emphasized at our forum last week.  His passion for mentorship got me to thinking about the mentors I've had throughout my life so far, and to be completely truthful, I'd be nowhere without them.

Let me start off with my dance teacher, Melissa.  She has been a role model for me for about ten years, and she inspires me to be a better dancer and a better person.  Melissa always handles herself in a polite and diplomatic way, and even when she is scolding her children or a student or confronting someone she never loses her cool.  She's always been there to help me through whatever problem I've had, and she was always patient with me when I had difficulty with certain steps.  Melissa is a humble teacher and fabulous person.  Even though we've had our ups and downs, she still cares about me and encourages me to do what is right for myself and for those around me.

During my junior year of high school, I had one of the best English teachers.  She is actually one of the big reasons I'm considering teaching English.  Mrs. McCoy is just a fun person.  She's really chill and laid back, and she has a real passion for teaching and sharing her love of literature.  She always encouraged me to think outside the box and push the limits with my writing.  My senior year I was her aide, and that gave me a look into being an English teacher.  She makes it fun; it is plain to see that she enjoys her job, and it's her joy that inspired me to go into that same field.  Mrs. McCoy takes a real interest in her students, and she is always there for anyone who needs a shoulder to cry on.

Seriously, my closest mentor would have to be my mom.  She's really my best friend.  I literally don't know where I'd be without her, and I don't misuse literally.  She has put up with so much drama from me, and yet, to this day, she is nothing but supportive of me.  From gymnastics to dance to theatre to cheering, she has always found a way for me to do whatever it is that I set my mind to do.  She has always encouraged me to be the best and most independent me that I can be.  She listens to all of my problems without complaint and always helps me figure out the most practical solution.  She gave me the best childhood I could ask for.  She gave me a love of reading.  She gave me imagination.  And to top it off, she gave me love.  That's the most precious thing I could ask for.

I hope that I can one day do all of these things for someone else.  I hope to encourage, inspire, support, listen, and love someone so that they know that they can do whatever it is they set out to do because that's what these women have done for me.  They have instilled in me a confidence of heart and mind that I would otherwise be without.  I am eternally grateful to these women, and I hope that by paying it forward down the line that they will somehow be repaid.

Paris holds the key to your heart!

Of all my classes here, my favorite is French.  Now, before you get all excited, it's introductory French.  So, now you ask, "Why is it your favorite, Katie?"  To which I could say, "Well, my professor is absolutely hilarious," or "The class is just really fun," or "The language is gorgeous," and all of these statements are true, and they really do make it my favorite.  But what I really love about it is that I get an hour of credit for doing a language lab.  This entails me going to the Foreign Languages Computer Lab, signing in, picking out a French movie if I don't have any homework, and sitting and watching said French movie.  And let me tell you, the French know cinema.

I am currently watching Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which is absolutely phenomenal.  If you've never seen this movie, I highly suggest you do.  It's the story of  a struggling novelist who has traveled to Paris with his terrifying fiancée and her family.  While in Paris, he finds the inspiration and hope he needs to finish novel, which subsequently helps him find who he is.  A lot of other stuff happens too, but I won't ruin it for you.  Go watch it.  Now.

Dancing Through Life

pas·sion

 [pash-uhn]  strong and barely controllable emotion.

What is my passion?  This question has been haunting me for the past week, and it's really hard for me to come up with the answer.  I can always come up with many things that I enjoy doing, but for some reason, I struggle with pinpointing the one about which I am passionate.  The one I love to do the most.  

There's a saying that if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life.  In thinking of what I want to do with my life, this saying plays on repeat in my head.  How do I choose something I love?  What do I love?  If I choose to do that for a living, will I still love it?  I mean, I don't want to end up resenting something that I once loved.

I started taking dance classes at the age of three.  About two years later, I quit dance to take gymnastics.  Then when I was eight years old, I went to a week long day camp where I took a simplified dance class.  And I fell in love.  I started dance again that fall and continued until this May.  Even now, I would give anything to be in a studio again.

For the longest time, I thought this was my passion.  I loved it with every fiber of my being, but after awhile I got burnt out on dancing.  I hated it for the better part of a year.  And it was scary.  For about five years, I was convinced that I would dance on Broadway or backup for Britney Spears while I was still young and then own a studio and help other young girls find themselves in the music and movement.  And then one day, I just couldn't stand it anymore.  And I'm afraid that if I pursue this as a career, it will happen again.  That's something that I really just couldn't stand to happen again.

Still, it is a passion of mine.  It is a driving force.  When I'm dancing in a studio, it's just me, the floor, the music, and the mirror.  The rest of the world fades away, and I'm left to dance out my anger, my fear, my joy, my sorrow, my ecstasy.  I've yet to find something so cleansing, so freeing.  When I'm dancing on a stage underneath the lights, I'm in a sanctuary.  Nothing can harm me there because I have a show to perform and an audience to experience it.  It's the one place where I feel completely at home, and even if I mess up, it's okay because I'm still bringing magic to the audience; they're still entranced by the story being portrayed.  

Looking back on that year of dance-spite, I think that maybe my problem was that I honestly didn't know why I danced.  But now I know.  I dance because it's the closest to magic I've ever gotten.  The sounds of taps striking the floor, the cutesy sass of musical theatre, the indescribable elegance of a jete en pointe, the attitude of hip hop, all of it, every minute aspect is magic to me.  The ability to relay an entire story with nothing more than movement to express emotions that words and voices can't seem to support is pure magic - straight fairy dust.

It never ceases to amaze me how intense and powerful it can be.  Even without music, the choreography would still be there, creating and flowing and living for a few fleeting moments.  And honestly, that's the most important reason of all.  In the end, I dance to create, to share magic, to love, to breathe, to believe.  I dance to live.

Cliche Your Life.

Treat others how you want to be treated.
Take responsibility for your actions.
Always do what's right, even if doing what's right is hard.
Be kind to everyone because you don't know what kind of battles they're fighting.
[Insert another wise cliche here]

All of these sayings are coined as cliches for a reason.  They are great rules of thumb for life, but that doesn't mean they are any less overused.  And when something becomes overused it loses its value.

The first listed, most commonly known as the "Golden Rule," is learned in Sunday School at the age of three.  I have heard this saying for most of my life, and while it is true, people should treat each other with the same love and respect they expect with which to be treated, I honestly don't know many people who actually live by this.  We try, yes, but inevitably, we treat others not with the respect we feel should be shown to us but with the respect we think the opposing party has earned or deserves.  And that's human nature, our race's fatal flaw.

Most people in my generation, myself included, don't take full responsibility for their actions.  In a lot of ways, we've been given almost everything on a silver platter, and because of that we don't worry about the consequences as much as we should.  Now, when it comes down to it, we take at least a little responsibility, but we often pawn the burden of the problem off on someone who is "more suited" to carry it.  And that's not okay.  Actions have consequences, and every person should be ready to face the consequences of his or her actions.  End of story.

Doing what's right even if it's hard?  How about we think about it and find an easy way out of being involved altogether?  Because that's what most people do.  Mostly, that involves not having an opinion on the subject to begin with, or shaping your own opinion to the most popular one.  And that last one is the one that kills me the most.  Think through things!  Don't let the greater population tell you what to think.  Figure out what you believe based your own values and morals, not society's.  And once you have that opinion, stick with it.  Don't let others tell you it's wrong because it's not.  It's just different.

Now, I realize that this entire post sounds extremely pessimistic, and truth be told, it kind of is.  But what I hope you take most from this is that these things, these cliches that have long been taught and ignored, shouldn't be happening this way.  People really should do their best every day to treat others with respect and kindness, and they should seriously think through the consequences of their actions and then take responsibility for them, and most of all, they should have opinions and thoughts and beliefs, even if those beliefs are entirely different from everyone around them.  Stick to your guns.  Put on a happy face.  Respect everyone.  Be prepared to fail, and all those other wise cliches.