I turned the corner and saw myself at four years old. Not a phantom, but the physical me, on the last day I ever danced. I am taking my daughter, Penelope, to her dance rehearsal. Penny is only 8, but she is a phenomenal dancer. She started dancing when she was just 3 and caught on very quickly. Penny always has me stay to watch her practice, but I have a very important meeting to attend. I think I baby her a little too much, but it is time for her to grow up a little. I want her to grow up and be a very independent woman and not rely on me for everything when she is older. Penny and I are on our way to her rehearsal. I start to tell Penny that I won’t be there for her rehearsal. She wants to make a deal with me. Her deal is that if I can’t stay to watch then I will at least have to walk her in. I feel really bad because today is the day of the try outs. Then I start to think back to that horrible day when I was auditioning. Then Penny yells at me saying, “Mom, Look out!” I quickly look up and start to swerve. I nearly missed that car.
We finally arrive at her rehearsal with minutes to spare. She rushes out of the car then stops and wants me to hold her hand before we walk in. Just before we walk through the doors I tell her that she looks beautiful and no matter what happens if she doesn’t get the big solo everything will be alright. She smiles and nods her head. We walk in and we both hear her name being called she is up for the audition. We are rushing down the hall. We rush into the room. Penny yelling, “I’m here! I’m here!” I have a couple of minutes to spare before I leave so I decide to watch a little of her audition. She warms up. I tell her good luck. She is doing very well, but I have to go. I start to walk away and the next thing I know I hear a cry and scream saying, “Mommy!” I rush back into the room and I see Penny lying there on the floor, but the next thing I see is me. I see myself on that awful day of my audition when I was just only four. I was dancing, spinning, and jumping in the air and the next thing I know I had broken every bone in my leg. That day didn’t just break my leg, it broke my dreams. Every little kid wants to be a pop star or a princess, but not me, I wanted to be a dancer. I then again see Penny. She is holding her arm in pain. I quickly pick her up and head for the car. I take her straight to the hospital. She is in the back seat. Then Penny asks me about my meeting. I tell her, “You are more important than any stupid meeting.”
We get to the hospital and they take her in to see what is wrong. They are doing x-rays on her to see if she has broken anything. I ask her how she fell. She tells me that when she looked up and saw that I wasn’t there she had remembered her dad telling her the story about what happened to me and then she just fell. She then says, “Momma, I was scared that the same would happen to me.” I just shake my head. The doctor comes back with the results. The doctor walks into the rooms saying, “She’s alive! She will be able to dance again it’s just a pulled muscle. It should be healed in a couple of weeks.” Penny and I are so relieved.
We get home and I tuck her into bed and give her a good night’s kiss. I tell her that dreams are good. Dreams are what keep us going forward and you can never give up on your dreams. Dreams are what motivate you to keep pushing yourself and making you a better person.