College Essay FINAL

University of Virginia
Prompt: Describe a place or environment where you are perfect content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

          Everyone has their place where you can be you and be genuinely happy. It can be at home in your room or in your imagination where you can roam freely. Being a ballet dancer, my favorite state of mind is when I'm dancing. The rush of adrenaline pumping, the hype of getting the movement right, and just the total feeling of it, makes me tingle inside. There would be no place for me to feel that rush, if it wasn't for my dance school, Queen Emma Ballet. It's the only place where I can be in that state of mind and fit in with everyone there. It has people I can relate to, people to look up to, and gives me the best feeling in the world. Even if it sounds very cliche, this place will always be my home away from home, the place where I was allowed to be who I wanted, and where I belonged.

        When people first see me, they rarely think that I'm a dancer and the thought of me being a ballet dancer is a one and a million chance. I really don't fit the image of a "prima ballerina" in training. I'm basically a girl who just liked to dance and my studio was the place where I got to embrace it. In grande allegro or big jumps,  I can fly across the room easily. In pirouettes or turns, if I set my mind to it, I'm able to do 3. Which in my studio is a lot. Dancing makes me feel free. Almost like I'm superhuman. I can do the impossible when I'm dancing. I'm in control and there's no one telling me what I have to do. In ballet class, I'm me in every single possible way. I can put my own little flair into each combination which makes ten times more fun. The studio itself is small and simple, but there's nothing I would change about it, except occasionally adding AC for those really hot days. The best thing about it is that I feel totally comfortable, like it's my home. It gives a welcoming vibe that is impossible to resist.

       The studio had it's own special charm, but the people that came with it made it all the more amazing. I can't go that much in detail about who they are, but I'll just leave it at awesome. They are some of the most awesome people in the world. They put up with me four days a week and they still haven't tried to get rid of me yet. The memories we make are never not incredible. We just have fun, do weird, stupid things, but we own it. We're a special type of breed of dancers that just perfectly fit together. Without them, it would be like having having no pho (a.k.a. my favorite food ever) in the world, which means that I would be the saddest person in the universe. They help me improve, dance-wise and personality-wise, and make bad days not that bad. I completely trust them which I can't say for a lot of people in my life. They're my family that loves me no matter how weird I can get.

        My friends and the studio would be nothing if we didn't have our teachers. Just like school, I have teachers that I love and teachers that I "tolerate". The teachers I love, I would never replace. One of my favorite teachers, Ms. Eve, who is like our dance mom. She gets mad at us a lot, just like any other mom would, but somehow manages to still love us. We even have little special talks about life and school, and it makes going to dance practice feel like it's not practice. The connection that I have with her is different than a regular student-teacher relationship, and like I have been saying this whole essay, we're a family. Having her in my corner has made me more courageous and outgoing because I knew could always count on her.  She and all the other teachers tie the whole essence of Queen Emma Ballet together.

         Queen Emma Ballet is and will always be my second home with the best second family a girl could ask for. Just the thought of the place brings a smile to my face. On some days, it beats going home. When I'm either at my lowest or highest, I can always count on this place to be there 24/7. I don't even have the words to tell you how special this place is but I will tell you how grateful I am to be a part of it. I don't think I would be half the person I am today without this place. I know that this place has made me more confident and courageous, which is something I'm still working on. We may be small in size and quantity, but we're a force to be reckoned with. I love this place because in any other place I would never feel like I belonged like the way I feel at Queen Emma Ballet A.K.A. the place where I'm perfectly content.