She feels empty; leaning against the dance practice room mirror, her head between her knees. Crying, for the very first time ever since she was 11 years old when she broke her foot. This time, her crying for, is nothing like that. This was worse.

 

As she was crying, scenes from an hour before flashed back into her mind. “No! You aren’t allowed to dance anymore! We don’t allow you. Now focus on your studies!” her parents screamed at her before she grabbed her training bag and ran towards the practice studio, tears rolling down her cheeks.

 

Thinking about it made her cry more. How can her parents not let her dance? Dancing is her dream, her passion. Why are her parents not let her pursue her dreams? Is it because of her studies? But her studies are fine, now why can’t they let her follow her dreams?

 

She rummaged through her training bag and put her socks and training shoes on. She held on to the mirror for balance and support as she stood up. She plugged her phone into the stereo and waited for the music to start playing. As soon as the introduction part start to play, she quickly positioned herself in the middle of the practice room. When time was right, she started to practice her dance routine for her school performance. It might be her very last performance that she could do and so she practiced hard and diligently, knowing that it would be her last performance.

 

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The clock in the school hallway shows five past eight. The hallways were cleared of students with them all gone to their classes, all except for her. She was walking slowly, soullessly towards her class. It took her ages to get to her class though it was only about fifty metres away from the entrance of the school. She twisted the door knob slowly and pushed the door open. Her classmates turned to the door staring, her teacher turned his back to the whiteboard with his attention at her. “Mineun, what do you think you are doing? You are late, detention after school today. Now go back to your seat” her teacher instructed her.

 

She turned herself slowly to the back of the classroom and walked down the aisle. While walking, her friends looked at her with concerned eyes, mouthing the words ‘talk to me later’. She waved them off and sat at her seat.

 

The day past slowly with her thinking about dancing, not listening to a word the teachers says in class, not that she cared. She only cares about dancing.

 

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As the choir belted out their last harmonic note, the audience applauded. When their sustained note faded, the curtains slowly came down, getting ready for another performance. "Mineun, you're up." The stage manager called her up. She took her place in the middle of the stage and the spotlight shone on her.

 

The curtains raised and the music started. She started to dance to the music, feeling the emotion of the song. Her hair gracefully flew in the air like her body movements. Fluid, gentle, graceful, perfect. She reminded herself, dance like how she practiced, dance so she has no regrets, dance like there's no tomorrow. Because this was her last performance in her life.

 

The song was coming to an end. She danced the last bit of the choreography, and when the song ended, the spotlight shined on her with her ending elegant pose. The audience broke out in cheers, giving her a standing ovation. She broke out of her pose and started to pant. She bowed to the audience in a 90 degrees bow and kept muttering 'thank you'. She loves the cheers, she just wants to melt in it, be in it forever, but no, this is her last, she remembered. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she made her last bow, and the curtains fell.

 

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A month have past after her last performance, and since then, she had been living in a world with no colours. Her cheerful self have been replaced by a quiet girl. During this month, her friends had been very supportive of her after knowing the situation she is in. They tried to cheer her up by making puns, treating her to meals. Although none of them worked, they still tried their best in making her happy.  

 

"Mineun. Mineun, what is the answer for this question?" The teacher asked her as she daydreamed. "Mineun." In an even sterner voice.

 

Her friend pushed her a little and she came back to reality. "What?" She asked her friend.

 

"What is the answer to this question, Mineun?" The teacher asked again. She looked at the teacher and shrugged her shoulders in response. "Why then you should pay attention in class then. Detention after class today.”

 

She groaned and kept her eyes on the board.

 

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She walked out of detention class with her backpack slung on her right shoulder and dragged herself back home.

 

As she walked past the dance building she used to go for dance practices, she saw many posters taped up on the wall, and some with corners peeled off from the wall. She turned to look at the posters with interest as the wall never had things pasted on.

 

'Dance competition'

 

The poster showed. Looking upon the word 'dance' made her heart drop. She can't dance anymore. Her parents don't allow her. She closes her eyes and continued walking back home.

 

Memories flashed back when she scraped her knees during dance practice once, when her hair and body were drenched in sweat, the smile she had on when she practiced into the third hour, the hardships she went through in practice. The latest memory of when the audience gave her a standing ovation gave her a smile, made her think and know, that she can't stop dancing. She's gone through so much already, why not go through the rest of it? She can't stop dancing and no one is going to stop her.

 

With that last thought in mind, she went back and grabbed the poster and shoved it into her bag, running home.

 

Once she got home, she went on her laptop to search for a suitable song for a dance routine she already had in mind, and signed up for the competition. After finding a song and getting it over to her phone and thumbdrive, she went back out to the dance studio, though it was in the middle of the night. And from then on she went to the dance studio after school everyday to practice for seven hours straight.

 

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The day of the competition came and she was really nervous. The previous night of the competition, she built up courage to ask her parents to come watch her. But knowing that they wouldn’t come if it was related to dance, she told them that it was a presentation for school.

 

Her parents reached the venue and noticed all the decorations and posters up on the walls saying ‘dance competition’, in which they were furious and turned their heels, ready to go back home. But then someone stopped them in their tracks, “I know this is ridiculous, but you really should ought to stay and watch. She has a huge passion on dancing, and she is fabulous when she does it. It is like a different her. You should look at it through her perspective, know that she enjoys it, loves it. Because when you told her no, her world came crashing down. And I hope that does not happen again because even if you say no, she will never give up.”

 

“Right, fine. We’ll come and watch but we’re going right after her performance.” Her parents said, with her friend leading her parents to their seats. Her friend sat next to her parents in case they leave without watching her perform.

 

Eight performances had past and it was still not her turn to perform yet. Her parents stood up, tired of waiting but again, her friend stopped them. “Just wait a bit more, her performance is next and she hopes for you to be there to see her perform, and let her dance again.” And then again, they sat down.

 

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She was waiting so nerve wrackingly backstage. Knowing that her parents will be there made her feel more nervous. She has to perform well, win this competition and let her parents know that she loves it and has the talent for it. When her name was called to go up, all she did was panic.

 

As she stood in the middle of the stage, she calmed down and concentrated. The curtains raised and she was found kneeling down, face down, with the spotlight on her. The music started and she looked up, giving an intense stare into the audience, and started to dance.

 

While she was dancing, everyone in the audience, including the competitors and judges, had their eyes fixed on her, not leaving their eyes off her for even a second. Some with their mouth open even. In her parents heart and mind, they were really proud of their daughter, being able to dance like this. Shortly, the performance had finished. It was breath taking for the audience, they have never seen a performance this fiery, this great. One by one they started to stand, one by one they started to clap, and in no time, they were giving her a full standing ovation, never done before in a competition. Everyone, including her parents, with their lips in an upward curve.

 

As if it was planned out, her performance was the last. It was like an encore to the whole competition. And with no doubt, she won the competition in the end. Her parents let her continue to dance, and now she is attending worldwide concerts to perform.

Yes, I guess. Passion is enough, enough to motivate your dreams, in which nothing is going to stop you from achieving what you want to achieve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[A/N] Hey there everyone! I'm sorry I posted this late on schedule as I said that I would post it before my holiday ends, but here it is!

I know this ain't that great but, I hope you all really like this and I hope you've gained strength from reading this.

No one can stop you from achieving what you want to achieve. Be it dancing, writing, singing, be a doctor, a nurse, anything. GOOD LUCK GUYS and have a wonderful 2014!