Previously: Time is Flying By (Ava), Speeding Out of the Turn of a Decade (Joey)

The question what is one thing you couldn’t live without?  is one that I have often been asked often throughout my life, whether that be by a friend in a casual conversation, an interviewer for a job I have wanted, or even a college admissions counselor in one of many applications I wrote this year. 

It’s always been a question I could answer so simply and without any sign of emotion, as it’s just always been a part of my life: I couldn’t ever live without dance. 

Just three weeks ago, I sat on the plane home from my third and final nationals weekend down in Orlando, Florida, and reflected on my wonderful years on the dance team. The happiness I felt visualizing four years of memories were rudely interrupted by the idea that when we landed in Chicago and I stepped off that plane, I would be done dancing on the same team I have all of high school. Forever.

I didn’t, and still don’t even know how to go about this fact.

I mean literally, dance has been a part of my life since before I can even remember. Just the other day, my mom showed me home videos of me dancing in front of a video camera and forcing my mom to film me. And life has basically been the same ever since, making my family follow me to all of my performances, recitals, and competitions each year.

It’s been the greatest thing in my life, especially coming to Lake Forest High School, home to one of the best dance teams in the nation. It was always a dream of mine to be on this team throughout elementary and middle school, and I would drag my family to their halftime performances solely to see their new dances every week. 

Having the chance to make the team and dance on the stage with ‘Lake Forest Dance Team’ plastered on a banner behind me for the past four years has been an absolute honor. 

I know some high schoolers can definitely relate to this same heart-wrenching life change I was facing on the plane three weeks ago- the awful reality that is leaving a high school sport.

It’s brutal, honestly. You grow up playing a sport, maybe not taking it all that seriously. Then you get to high school, continue that sport, and grow even more dedicated to your sport in those four years.

And then, when your life feels like it literally revolves around practices, games, and your teammates, you have to leave that sport your senior year if you aren’t continuing to play in college (which for me, I’m pretty sure is my future reality.)

So many of us high school seniors will have to live without the sport that has always been in our lives and maybe even been the best part of our lives. And that fact is worse than a heartbreak or really anything I can think of, honestly.

I do feel really grateful that I can feel this emotion leaving my sport, because I know it’s definitely not the same for everyone at this school.

There’s so many sports at the high school that I know the people on the team genuinely dislike. I couldn’t even imagine not liking a sport yet continuing to do it day after day, yet I know some students do this, and that’s why I feel lucky to have had the love for poms that I do. 

And for those students who just can’t bear to picture themselves without their high school jersey on and playing out on their field every day, same. But, after pondering on this topic for a bit of time, I’m here to help you out a little bit.

It’s going to be fine.

We will always have the amazing memories of playing these sports deep down in our hearts, and maybe that’s all we need. Maybe we don’t need the physical action of doing our sport anymore anymore after high school (except I will definitely be freestyling in the dance studios of whatever college I go to…) 

It’s the normal path of high schoolers and something everyone has to face at one point or another, and we’re just going to have to accept the fact that it’s other people’s turns to make the amazing memories that we have already had the chance to on our team. 

To any underclassmen who may have made it this far in the article, remember to play every game or do every performance like it’s your last. Because by the time it’s your last, trust me, you’re gonna wish you could go back and do it all over again.  

I wish I could reverse the clock and go back four years and experience it all again, but until that’s possible,

Sincerely,

Ava Manelis