Thank you, Becca! I know exactly what you mean! I love that I both give myself over and lose myself to ballet but I find myself and define myself at the same time. As you expressed so well, it is the only activity that addresses each person in a truly complete way! I also love that it is in every way good for me, good for me physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially!

I used to run marathons. I ran cross country as a teenager and then marathons in grad school. I stopped about 5 years ago. I really enjoyed running but just didn’t really have the time to train anymore and I was concerned about the stress on my body as well. Just the other day I thought about how I used to enjoy running but I realized that I didn’t love running. I liked it a lot and I was good at it. I have experienced the wonders of runner’s high many, many times. But ballet class high is so much better than runner’s high. The contrast between doing something that I enjoy doing and doing something that I love, that consumes me, is more than I can express in words. It was kind of easy to give up running, but to give up ballet? No way!