Student Blog: It's Never Too Late To Start

Want to be in a musical? Audition! Want to start up dance classes? Figure out where! Want to own the most beautiful garden ever? Get a book from the library about gardening and get to work! I do not care how old you are - you can start anything new that you want to. 

When I was 9 or 10-years-old I decided I wanted to start dancing. My Mom went and figured out where I could go to dance in our area and I was ready to sign up … until I decided I was too old to start dancing. That could not be farther from the truth, but that’s what I thought. 

Then, when I was 11-years-old, I started dancing once a week at a studio in their Musical Theater dance class. I felt so behind and after that year, I didn’t sign up again. 

I signed up again when I was 13-years-old at a different studio. I danced twice a week in a combined tap and jazz class and a ballet class. I was the 2nd oldest in that class and the youngest were about 7-years-old. I swore those 7-year-olds could dance laps around me. I felt so very old (I really wasn’t!). 

At 14-years-old I started at a performing arts wing at my high school. In this wing, we had 45 minutes of dance 5 days a week + if you were in the dance ensemble of a show there, it was an extra 10-ish hours a week depending on what we were working on at that point in the process. I was dancing all the time in all different styles. Jazz, tap, modern, ballet, and more. It was awesome AND I started being put in the front of dances AND was even nominated for a dance award through our state-wide musical theatre awards as a freshmen. Was I the best dancer ever to exist? Oh, absolutely not BUT - I had so much fun. 

Now, I dance about 2 hours a day 4 days a week or more and I absolutely adore it. I may not be the best - I’ve only really been dancing for 4 or 5 years, but it’s been great. 

If you needed a sign to start up something you think you are too old for - this is it! I don’t care if you are 9-years-old or 90-years-old - you are not too old to try something new. 

I started lots of things “late”. I started musical theater at 11-years-old when most people started younger, I started ceramics at 17-years-old (I sucked at it, but loved it!), I still don’t know how to drive at 19-years-old and I don’t know when I will (it still scares me!)

The world is so big and starting something a little later than other people is something so small if it’s going to bring you joy.