How to Become a Dancer

First, find a dance studio that offers every type of dance imaginable.  Sign up for every type of dance class you can fit into your schedule.  Then, sign up for more classes.  

Tap.  Jazz.  Hip-hop.  Modern.  Ballet.  Pointe.  Lyrical.  Musical Theater.  Ballroom.  Salsa.  Belly dancing.  African.  Tango.  Break dancing.  Square dancing.  Flamenco.  Folk.  Swing. 

When your best friends and your parents call you crazy and tell you, "There is no way you'll be able to keep up," laugh in their faces and say, "I love to dance! Dancing is my life!"  While secretly, you hate going to every single class.  You'd rather be going any where else than to be with the other more talented dancers and your "wanna-be Rockette" teacher.  However, after a few hours of many, many, many splits, leaps, turns, and bourree pas des you think, "Hey, maybe dance isn't so bad."  No matter how many times that wanna-be Rockette corrected you position and pretty much called you fat.  What does she know anyway?  Criticize your teacher, which totally brings up your mood and then treat yourself to a great dinner.  

After a whole year of breaking in your many new pairs of dance shoes decide to drop out of all but four classes and make your mom so mad for, "Wasting my money on all those classes, shoes, and clothes!"  Wake up and see that you disliked dance because it was taking control of your life, now it is time to take control of dance.  Dedicate your strength into the dance that you love, that you are good at, and that you want to improve on.  Forget what all your friends say or think, deep down inside they're just jealous because they can't dance.

Perform in the end of the year benefit dance show and blow away everyone's mind and preconceptions.  Prove to everyone that you are not a quitter.  You will be so proud of yourself for sticking to those four dance classes that you sign up for more the following year.  Fail in many of them.  Hate dance.  But then fall in love again.  

Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult

I love Jodi Picoult, I have read four of her other books and loved every single one; however, I was not ready for my fifth encounter with Picoult.  I expected drama and shock, but with every turn of a page in this novel there is a new mystery and a new discovery.  I am truly enjoying the suspense because it keeps me engaged and interested in continuing reading.  The emotions Picoult plays on helps to bring her characters to life; I want to cry for the main character and play with the little girl and go on a search-and-rescue with the bloodhound.  I honestly can not wait to finish reading this amazing novel and discover another intriguing Jodi Picoult stroy.  

Who Said Reading Isn't Cool?

Being honest with yourself and others is very important because honesty will only help you realize your full potential and true beliefs. Although the truth may hurt sometimes, admitting to the truth as to why or why not we read is very beneficial for you to become an active reader. In the article by Motoko Rich, "A Good Mystery: Why We Read," Rich explains that reading is like internal punishment and that many people have "literary indifference." I find that literary indifference comes from many high school students because they find reading boring or seen more of as work and a chore than enjoyment and leisure. What helps me to really get into a great book is finding the perfect series or author that I can escape with and pretend that I am a new character. Like Rich said, interest is "shaped in part by external forces . . . by a spark within the imagination." When I find an intiguing author or series I want to read every book without stopping, I want to become the character and truly understand where he/she is coming from and what he/she is experiencing. I know I have found the perfect book when I laugh out loud and want to cry or scream or dance.
I disagree with Wesley Jackson when he says in his article, "Why We Read," that "Reading isn't cool." If reading is an activity that you do becuase you enjoy it and you can be transformed into a hundred different characters and travel to a thousand different lands then reading is very cool.