In All Honesty

It's Sunday, and Deeply Rooted is officially over. As much as I complained about it and barely ever wanted to go, it was one of the best experiences of my life. Going into this program, I wasn't sure what to expect. The very first day, they made us right down three goals we wanted to achieve by the end of the program and on Saturday before the first show of the night, we got this index card back and we could talk about if our goals were relevant.

• More flexibility
• More strength in my hip flexers
• Clean consistant doubles & triples on my left and right foot

As I was looking at my index card, I haven't really achieved anything I wanted to. Being a dancer, these are things that you just have to work on constantly. I've gotten SO much more out of this intensive. Yes, I got the physical aspect like technique, but I also got the mental approach of dance that I've never experienced before. It's also crazy that I can get along with people of all ages from 11 to 25 in such a short period of time. We were walking around Kennedy-King this weekend twerking and singing every single song we knew like we grew up together. It was great to be around dancers who appreciate the art just as much as me and also just accepted everyone just the way they were. I can genuinely say that I loved every single person that did Deeply, even if I didn't really know them. I loved their spirit.

I loved the teachers, and the professional dancers that helped me throughout this process. They didn't care if I was tired or if I didn't want to be there. They worked us into the ground because they wanted to make us stronger and better. They did it because they loved us, even though at the time it seemed like they were out to get us. I love them for it because in the end, that's what I needed.

Deeply Rooted was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, experience of my life. I'm actually sad that it's over. Seriously, the people I've bonded with and the things we've done will always be a big part of me.