You matter.

Today I had one of those aha moments. You know, when you just hear the simplest of things and your messed up brain just makes up a moral out of it. So you spend the next 10 minutes just thinking about it, how much ever non-teenagy it sounds. (Or it's just me being weird) I was at the studio today ( I am a dancer) and was watching the little kids do their little dance segment. Sorry to be distracted but have you ever seen little kids rehearse? They are by far the most cutest thing you'll ever see and yes, including puppies. There's something enchanting about seeing their innocence. From the way the communicate, using simple words that are totally honest and have no "read between the lines" attitude to them, to the way they dress, clothed in whatever their parents think is appropriate.

Anyways, back to the story. So this little girl with pig tails, merely 5, did a big chunk of the segment wrong. It was pretty funny because all the kids were standing in two straight lines and she was in the back Row. Granted, she had total view of all the steps and it was pretty hard to get them wrong, she still made up her own dance to replace what she couldn't remember. The other kids, still dancing but distracted, looked at her weird. She started turning red and hurried to mimic what the others were doing. Now most teachers at this point would scold the kid for forgetting especially because it was a competition number. But my teacher just looked at her, smiled and said " it's okay Emily, we all need solos at some point." The older dancer around me dismissed the comment but for me, it stuck home. So I leaned over and asked my friend- "did you hear that?" She just nodded. To be honest, I felt quite weird. It a statement I shouldn't have second thoughts about, something that should've been inconsiderate. But it wasn't just a lousy comment, it was more.

Everyday we make thousands of mistakes. Some are bigger than the others. However in the long run we forget to see how our mistakes shape the person we are and the person we will be. Make mistakes but don't make the same ones twice. As I was transitioning from being a kid to being a young adult, I've always been made believe that to make mistakes is bad. My parents literally frowned when I dropped that spoon on the dinner table. And that's not even a real mistake. I remember once I made a Real mistake and my parents got so upset that my mom actually cried. Real tears and all. If there's anything I know I am scared of, Its to disappoint my parents. Yet everyday I wake up and tell myself that it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to be stupid and make wrong decisions. And however cheesy it sounds- it okay to be flawed. Our life's are a long dance number with lots if people around us and sometimes all it takes is that mistake. That mistake which becomes solo in the big picture that is your life. If there's anything I've learned in dance it's that solos are important.

That's all for now.

Stay imperfect, stay confident, stay beautiful.