adult ballet

How to Try New Things as an Adult

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Being an adult is hard. We get stuck in our own little bubbles and just work, cook, and clean…and clean some more. (Seriously though…so much cleaning…) Sometimes we have hobbies beyond watching Netflix or HBO, but it’s hard to do things after work – even if we’ve been sitting for eight hours a day.

BUT….isn’t there that one thing you’ve always wanted to try or do. Maybe you want to learn how to play the piano, or you want to get back into playing the sport you loved when you were a kid. Maybe you want to learn a new language and then go visit a new country to practice. Whatever it is, it can be kind of scary to start as an adult and especially to start alone!

As adults, we’re not used to trying new things unless we get a new job or move to a new city. Even then there’s some guidelines in place for what we should and shouldn’t do. Starting something new when you know no one and you’ll (most definitely) be bad at it is scary! We’re not used to being bad at things once we reach a certain age. But it’s also exciting. You can be terrible and get better! Here are three tips to just start.

  1. Do your research: Find a class that’s beginner friendly. I started going to ballet class as an adult without any foundation and did some in-depth research on beginner classes. Some classes claim to be for beginners, but you need a base level of knowledge to take it. In the end, I found a 6 week beginner class that claimed to be for people with no dance background and it was! It was great to be with people and learn with adults who had no background in dance. We could all fumble along together.
  2. Try it out: If you can’t determine if it’s a beginner class, you can call and find out. If you’re still not sure then, take a deep breath, and just go. If you hate it and feel out of your depth you don’t have to go back! You’ll never see those people again so be as terrible as you can be. But at least you’re trying.
  3. Keep going: Maybe you enjoyed the class. Go back! Maybe you felt foolish. Go back! Or if you didn’t like it at all (like one dance class I tried where the teacher was rather rude), then don’t go back. Find something else! We have the freedom to choose what we do and don’t do and where we spend our money, so spend your time and money on things you enjoy. 🙂

I hope to get back into ballet now that the studio is open again. And I want to try a few other things – some recipes, go to some new museums, and just generally get out of my apartment again. What do you want to try?

Until next time.

Day 76: Be Terrible

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Yes! Success! For the first time in a couple months I went to ballet class. I was initially apprehensive about going because I haven’t been in awhile and even when I was going, my attendance was quite spotty. I’ve realized recently that often times my decision not to go to class had only to do with my own fears and anxieties. I was the one standing in my way because I was worried my teacher would judge me for all the progress I’d lost! Which is ridiculous! I’m not going to become a professional ballerina or even go on to dance in any sort of recital. This is for exercise and for fun. For my health! The thing I should be least worried about it what my teacher will think of me.  The thing I should be most worried about is making sure I attend class, so I can take care of my body and myself. And so this is another lesson I learned. Be Terrible.

Okay… don’t be terrible, but don’t be afraid to be terrible at something. I’m an adult! I have a job I find moderately rewarding and pay my own bills. Everything else is just for my own enjoyment and happiness. So what if I’m terrible at pirouettes.  At least I’m getting out there and spinning across the floor like my four year old self would be proud of!

This advice is important for not just exercise, but also for writing! I’m often worried of what will happen at the end of writing my book. Will all the hard work be for nothing? Will it be rejected? Will I even get an agent? Will it arrive on shelves and then sit there until it’s put in the bargain bin and I’ll never write another thing again? Or will I be a wild success so I can quit my day job and just spend my days writing and writing and writing? (Yes, please!) But none of these are an option if I don’t at least finish the book. So let my story be terrible and I’ll fix it up afterwards. After all you can’t even read empty pages.

Until tomorrow.

289 days to go.

 

Ten Thousand-ish

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Ballet

 

For the past few years I’ve been taking ballet classes off and on. Adult ballet classes. I never took them as a child, but I always wanted too. I remember at a young age asking my one ballet friend all about class and performances and what being part of a production was like. To me it just seemed like magic. Even as a teenager, I looked for adult classes I might be able to join. Sadly, there weren’t any in my area.

Then one day a few years ago I suddenly realized – I’m an adult and I can do whatever I want, whenever I want (for the most part, as I am very law-abiding and rule oriented). So I signed up for a beginner class! By myself. It was scary doing something new and all alone, but I loved it! It’s been a few years since I took that beginner class and so I want to get back in the saddle (or rather in the shoes). I’ve been having trouble making it to class for the last year or so and I want this blog to be some sort of accountability. I know I’ll never dance on stage, but I’d at least like to make it into pointe shoes! At least once.

They say you need 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. Maybe I’ll never make it there, but I want to get as close as I can. (I even have a tracker on my phone. It’s called Mastery.) So here’s to the start of 10,000 hours and some sort of accountability. And practice. Lots and lots of practice. I’ll update my progress along the way with some other blog posts thrown in about things I love. This is – after all – a blog about finding things in life which bring me joy, however small.

xoxo