It Takes Practice...A Lot of Practice ((Danica))

Just hold the bar. It shouldn’t be too difficult if you could just hold that stupid bar. Ara was in the dance studio, using some of her free time to become accustomed to the different places of the school. While she had been prepared for the artistic nature of the school, she had not expected to have to take classes in the different areas of arts. She was relatively satisfied and knew that her passion was in music; she failed to see the point in having to take classes in other arts courses as well. She was sure that she had established the fact that she did not do well in the other areas of the performing arts.

Still, she sucked it up and went to her classes. She hated how behind she was in the other arts and how difficult it was going to be to have to catch up. Her father didn’t want “her head in the clouds” so he put his foot down when she asked if she could take other creative courses, believing that if she could do so well in music, she could do well in the other subjects. But the prime time for learning had already passed for her, making the learning process in her current classes very difficult. All of a sudden, she was expected to pick up on something new, something that the best had to go through years of training to achieve.

She tried to imagine it like playing an instrument, one that gave her more room than just the piano bench. Her mind went loose as she thought of herself as the air, bending to what was being created for her. The moment she decided to stand on the tip of her toes with just one foot was the moment she also met the hard, wooden floor. Her back ached and she was sure that her head was never going to forget that impact. In her moment of stupidity, she had forgotten to keep hold of the bar and as a result of both gravity and horrible balance, she tipped over backwards and landed hard on the ground.

It was painful, but it was only through pain that she would learn. At least that was her motto for her classes. Even when she was playing her instruments, there were still times when she had to struggle. All the horrible, squeaky high notes along with the burns her fingers would take as they ran across the strings helped her become a better musician. So she applied the same concept to dancing; all of the mistakes she would ever make would help her progress in class. It was only a pity that she hadn’t thought about starting earlier though, If she had, she was sure there was no way she would be feeling the pain as much as she did at that moment. Then again, would she have focused on music so much?

“Come on, Ara. You have to focus. It’s the only way you can get any sense of practice outside of class.” Despite the words coming out of her mouth, her mind and body kept protesting, refusing to find herself on the ground again. It was only right that she had to work to accomplish something, but what she was doing was so close to self-abuse that she stopped before she dared to try again. She would save getting a concussion for another day.