Personal Narrative: Transition From Childhood To Adulthood

Often times, making a difficult decision can mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. In my personal experience, a tough decision in dance would mark the aforementioned statement to be true. I began dancing at the age of ten, and shortly after, dance became my life. I would dance day and night, all throughout the year. Along the way, I learned many lessons. In one instance, I needed to decide over my health and safety or the success of my dance team. At the time, I was conflicted over this incident; however, I am now very grateful because it shaped my work ethics and taught me some very helpful skills. It started off like all the other dance competitions. I arrived two hours before I was set to perform. While waiting on the side of …show more content…
Initially, I felt outrage over the fact that my teammates would be selfish enough to even ask me to compete with my injury; it made me think that their ability to compete was more important than my health and well-being. I felt betrayed and hurt; I expected more from my teammates. I told myself if I was in their position, I would rather not compete for the safety of my teammate. Also, I was extremely frustrated at my dance teacher; I expected her to step in and make an adult decision for us. I was upset that she would leave such an important decision up to us; my teammates and I were only about 14 years old at the time. However, on the other hand, I was empathetic towards my teammates. I too share the love of dance and know how frustrating it is to miss out on an opportunity to perform. I knew it was especially a difficult situation for them because we had been preparing extensively; we had multiple practices throughout the week that pushed us to our limits and tired us out. We had been working hard for these performances and it felt unfair to throw away the opportunity just because of an injury. In addition, my injury was not very severe; I knew if it was actually in critical condition, something that would require me to immediately be taken to the hospital, my teammates would have easily opted out of performing. Ultimately, the decision I made was for …show more content…
It taught me many things about myself and shaped my work ethic. I learned that perseverance truly means continuing one’s mission in the face of adversity. I am now aware that an amazing teammate will preserver in order to further the team’s goal. My experience with my dance team reflects real experiences in professional work life; it introduced me to the future’s strive of commitment and dedication. I now know that if I commit myself to any project, I must see it all the way through, regardless of any hardships. This has helped me with the smallest tasks such as staying up all night to study or finish homework, and with bigger responsibilities such as continuing to work in difficult circumstances. I also learned that making difficult decisions can sometimes require an absence of one’s feelings; they can cause a person to overthink the situation and feel hurt by others’ responses. Sometimes making a decision has to be like a business transaction: straightforward and void of emotion. I am also thankful that my dance teacher left the decision up to my teammates and I. She knew that we were becoming old enough to start making our own decisions, thus she gave us this opportunity to work on our decision making skills. The opportunity she offered us allowed us to truly rely on each other as teammates; after this experience, we knew we