Gearing Up for an Amazing Summer

I realized something a couple weeks ago:

Year 21 has been the greatest year on record for me!

Although I’ve never had what anyone could call a “hard life,” there have always been certain things that kept me from feeling truly good about myself. For starters, I never really put myself or any talents I might have on display, meaning that I never really got a whole lot of recognition from my family or peers. I didn’t really have any talent to show off either, except for writing (which was only something I honed late in my high school years). Even then my career as a college English major and my own personal laziness kind of killed that possibility off. Additionally, I’ve often felt like I was the “forgotten friend.” There were many times in high school and afterward when I was not included in events that the rest of my social group participated in. Sometimes these were accidents (“We totally forgot about you”); other times… not so much (“We didn’t feel like we could invite both you and your ex-girlfriend”). The result was a version of me that was self-conscious, not confident, and generally unsatisfied with the direction my life was heading.

But last Fall I took action! I started learning how to dance, starting with a beginning Ballroom course at Sac State. That one little change in my life has completely changed my life, improving my social life, providing an outlet for stress, keeping me healthy, and generally improving my image of myself. What’s more, it’s really fun and I’m pretty good at it (as my friend Katherine will tell you ;-p ). Someday soon, I’ll probably do on lengthy post on all the reasons dancing has improved me personally, but for now I’ll say this: I feel like I’ve enjoyed this year of my life more than any other I can recall.

And here’s the best part: Year 21 is still around for 2.5 more months!

June is just getting stated and I’ve got big plans for this summer. I am now living in Sacramento permanently (no more commuting from my hometown), which means that I can keep dancing and hanging out with all my new friends all summer long. Two of my goals for this summer are to learn Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing, two more challenging social dances I’ve been wanting to learn for months now. With school done for the semester, I can devote myself to these endeavors with worrying about homework or other such nonsense. I’ve already begun work on both of these projects. Additionally, I’m planning to see not one but two concerts next month (Coldplay and my favorite SF band, LoveLikeFire), and I’d like to go see a performance of the musical Wicked in SF as well. Finally, I’m going to do at least one dance weekend in the Bay area. One of my dancing friends is from there and we’re hoping to make a long weekend of it sometime soon (plus, I really need to explore SF more; I’ve never even been to Chinatown!!).

It’s been a great year so far, and I plan to make it even better. I’m going to try to blog more so you can keep track of all these exciting adventures and developments ^_^