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My Younger Sister is Born
My sister Avery was born on July 9, 2004. My family and I were all living in upstate New York at the time, and we were all very happy. I remember being so excited to have a sister because I had been an only child for five years. When my sister was born I had to start learning how to share a lot of things. It taught me that everything wasn't always going to be about me. -
The Move
A year after my sister was born was when my family packed up and moved from New York to Arizona. I really did not want to move and leave behind everything that I was so used to. Moving to Arizona was a really big adjustment for me, and it was not a very fun year. -
Competing in Gymnastics
I was six years old when I started seriously competing in gymnastics. I dedicated all my time outside of school to training. All of my closest friends were at gymnastics, and I absolutely loved what I was doing. -
Cousin and Father Become Sick
When I was around seven years old, both my father and 10 year old cousin were diagnosed with cancer. Since I was relatively young, I didn't quite understand the severity of the situation. I knew my family was sick, but I had always assumed everything would go back to normal when they recovered. -
Cousin's Death
After two years of my father and cousin being sick with cancer, my dad had made a full recovery. My cousin on the other hand, didn't make it. My cousin's death impacted me greatly. After her death I realized that people aren't going to be around forever, and you never know how much time you have left on earth. -
Dance
I started taking dance classes at the end of my 8th grade year. I fell in love with dance immediately, and wanted to start competitions. My gymnastics background helped immensely with being able to make the switch to dance so successfully. I started taking dance very seriously and couldn't imagine doing anything else. My feelings toward dance are still the same today. -
Middle School
Middle school was definitely a difficult time for me. I was having a lot of social anxiety at school and it was negatively affecting my grades. I ended up getting appendicitis in 8th grade and had to miss a lot of school. My anxiety became so bad that I couldn't even return to school. Halfway through 8th grade I made the switch to online school. I also decided to quit gymnastics and switch to dance. -
Winning a Dance Competition
After a few years of continuing my dance training, I started to become very successful. I had caught up to the dancers that had been doing it all their lives, and even surpassed some. A very significant moment for me was winning a difficult dance competition in tenth grade. From that moment on I knew that I wanted to dance for the rest of my life. -
Feeling Depressed
Even though dance was going very well, I still had my anxiety. At the end of 10th grade my anxiety got worse, which led me to becoming depressed as well. My parents were also having a lot of trouble, and that just added to my depression. Everything seemed to just keep getting worse and worse. There was even a long period time when I couldn't bring myself to go to dance. -
Back on Track
This last life event is actually where I'm at right now. After far too long of letting my anxiety and depression control me, I got help and started making progress. Although I am still working on everything, I am a lot happier than I was this time last year. I am very proud of what I have accomplished so far, and hope to keep progressing.
