rewind: twenty-fifteen

in the past hour, i’ve tried three different ways to recap my year. the first would’ve been my normal farewell/foresight post, but heftier (yeah… no); the second would’ve been an end-of-the-year survey (too many questions and places to link. i’m a lazy person.); this is the third. hopefully, i won’t need to try another time.

january to may

january and febraury were slow blogging months as it was competition and audition season. i’d train and compete then train again then compete then audition and come back to more training and competing. it was exhausting and frustrating and made me feel SO DONE with competitions, like every year. (here’s a small fact: i despise ballet competitions. ish.) good new is my parents decided to let me go to new york for american ballet theatre’s five-week summer program! (thank you, evelyn, for helping me convince them.) i went when i was just shy of 14-years-old and a lot has changed since then; i was so excited to go again.

my arabesque photo for the auditions this year

march and april were HUGE blogging months for me. i think that’s the only thing i distinctly did. i created and revised my theme on photoshop, sent it to hazel for her to code, and endlessly wrote posts until i was thoroughly burnt out. i’d then mentally punch myself for not blogging every day when i didn’t realize i don’t have to blog every day. kids, don’t do idiotic things like me. i think i got behind on school, but i’m not sure… i was definitely doing kayla itsines’ BBG during this. i dunno march and april kind of seem like a black hole in my memory. (that’s what happens when you’re homeschooled and don’t follow a “regular” schedule.)

may was waaaay more hectic with more competitions (hah) and more blogging (HAH). i finally started to have a consistency with my blog in this month, which was wonderful and refreshing. i also remember the endless rehearsals for two more ballet competitions – one was at the end of may (i did a recap here) and the other was at the beginning of june. although i didn’t mention it before, those rehearsals were horrendous. i felt like death. (maybe it’s because it’s 1am as i write this and i feel like i need to get all the confessions out.) but other than that, may was a good month for me. i was ready for summer.

june to august

in the beginning of june, the rehearsals progressively got tougher as the regular schedule classes stopped. my friend jessica and i had to go to the studio every day leading up to the competition (she was going to the competition with me) and as i mentioned earlier, HORRENDOUS. buuuut what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and i certainly felt stronger the days leading up to it. i flew to indiana (where the competition was being held) for the week and there was a lot of craziness throughout (category changes, schedule mishaps, other drama). i was absolutely exhausted when it was over so i was glad to fly home. however, i was only home for two or three days before flying to new york! BLESS. i couldn’t wait for the food, um, i mean dancing – i couldn’t wait for the dancing.

july was just… dancing. and food. (acai bowls were the epitome of new york.) i recapped my entire summer here, but it was mostly just dancing and food. i was supposed to go back home at the end of july, but decided to stay for an extra two weeks to serve as a counselor for ABT’s young dancer summer program. i stayed until mid-august and i was kinda sad but also kinda relieved to come back.

september to december

after coming home, i felt particularly refreshed and inspired. the main reason i go to summer programs is to be in the environment. at home, everything’s comfortable and nice but that’s not how you’re going to get better. it may sound harsh, but you need to be surrounded by people better than or equal to your level of dancing so you can force yourself to work. so when i came back, i was motivated to get my life in check. september was all about getting back into the groove of things: continue school, read books (NEW RELEASES), blog, take pictures, and dance dance dance.

october and november were months revolving around performance. october was mostly filled with many more rehearsals, reading, schooling, and more. i also dedicated a good amount of time to preparing for an audition (which i didn’t get accepted to, but am over that now). november was my favorite month of the year, if i could choose one. we had our performance and i still read a lot of books AND my sister came back home and we went on vacation with her. it was all spectacular. autumn is the bestest.

december was, unfortunately, the slow chug at the end of the year. i tried focusing on school and being organized, but that didn’t work out as well as i hoped. i also was in a massive reading/blogging slump. as for ballet, i did a guest show for the lead of THE NUTCRACKER, but actually didn’t perform all that well. overall, the month’s been a bit bitter like the weather. although it had its moments, i expected it to be better. i’ll try to be more positive these last two days to make it better. BUT OH, my phone company decided to give us unlimited high-speed data for three months and it’s been SPECTACULAR. yeah, now that i think of it, december wasn’t too bad.

how was 2015 for you?