Thursday, October 23, 2008

Free Spirit



At 4:35 a.m. the average teenager snores as she enters the middle of her sleep cycle, wrapped in blankets and visiting dreamland. However, at 4:35 a.m. I throw off my blankets as Christian music hums in my ears and rush downstairs to toast my bagel. I prefer to head off to school with a feeling of accomplishment and exhilaration, due to practicing dance, not a feeling of tiredness and gloom like many classmates exhibit.


When I started ballet almost four years ago dancing changed from a fun way to exercise into a passion. I am not blessed with athleticism or flexibility, so striving to improve my dancing is my greatest challenge. Some people like to remind me that I started too late and will never reach the level of excellence I aim for. I just smile and say to myself, “All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me,” and “If there’s a will there’s a way.”

Along with dance, another passion occupies an equal portion of my heart: photography. Both elate my spirits more than anything else. I dream of not only elating my spirits but of touching many hearts through these art forms. I see myself using dance and photography in my ultimate desire to spread God’s love to others.

Currently I attend a Christian dance school where we worship God through dancing and share His message with audiences. I hope to teach others how to worship through dance and to inspire people through my passionate movements. Dance will always be a part of my life, through either teaching or taking classes on the side of my other occupations.
As well as inspiring people through dance, I anticipate touching people with my photographs. I believe photography provides a glimpse into another’s heart. Photographs open our minds to others’ feelings in a beautiful and powerful way. I will stir others’ emotions with photographs either by working for a newspaper, studio, or teaching photography.

Currently as Editor-in-Chief of our yearbook, I help tell stories within our school. My goals to use the most emotion filled and highest quality photographs often conflict with designers’ goals to keep the action looking into the page or to keep the design consistent. No other Editor-in-Chief before me has striven for the amount of coverage we are trying for or has gotten to know each staff member on a personal level as I have. Because my staff listens to me and respects me, we are placing much more emotion filled photographs on our pages. I do not want another mediocre book but want to soar ahead, covering all the nooks and crannies of our school and filling the pages with the highest quality design, stories, and photographs.

When I crawl into bed at 10 p.m. I like to know my dreams are coming true because I dared to give people a glimpse of another’s heart through photographs and dared to share God’s love through dancing.