So Very Finished

Hello fellow strangers and people I have pestered to read my blog,

Here we are, the final bow, the closing scene, the final chapter, the last 100 feet, the final stretch. This is the end of the school year as well as the end of this blog, which to those rare visitors that do not know me, is a school assignment. I didn't really consider it to be a school assignment since it was so fun, and previous 9th graders had raved about how wonderful it is. I have to agree, but all good things come to an end.

Ali's birthday party (Picture credits to Ali's mom) From left to right, Taylor, Faith, Claire, me, Ali, Holly

I started this blog to appeal to an audience consisting of my friends and trying to make them laugh and tell others about my blog and for me to become popular, but over the course of the year, I have stopped caring how many people view my blog and begun thinking more about my own needs and what I wanted to write about. This is also what happened to me over the course of the year, I stopped caring about what others thought and more about myself. I let myself wander into my own mindlessness and release my inner child. (see above picture)

At the beginning of the year, I wasn't shy, but I didn't openly approach people in order to befriend them, as well as being extremely mopey about my academy placement, but got over that and took it as a learning opportunity to be a better dancer, plus got some of the most amazing friends I have ever met, including Bella, Maddie, Carlee, Lena, Maria, Allison, and more. I grew close to them and I believe I grew as a person. I consider myself to be a pretty selfless person, but that wasn't always the case. I was pretty selfless last year but never though about others and was too busy trying to share my part of a story to really listen to others. Now I think I do this pretty well though I'm not perfect.

Plus, I got moved up in dance and will now be with my old dance group in Senior and Intermediate C, plus some freaking amazing new people that I danced ballet with. I am so excited to be with my 'family' again, but it has been nice finding new friends. If I have learned one thing from taking an hour every 10ish days to really think about myself by blogging, it has been that the only thing holding me back from greatness is myself, and I don't care how cheesy it is, I know that I can do it, and help the people that are in the place I was last year with either being held in place or moved back. I hope that they realize how wonderful the entire experience will end up being.

Lots of love, I'll see you when I see you next,
Alicia.

So Very Short

Hello fellow strangers and people I have pestered to read my blog,

So if you know me in real life, you probably know that I'm kind of short. By kind of, I mean quite short, but recently I have began to grow to be about average sized. This came as a bit of a shock and I don't really want to grow anymore, because honestly being short is pretty freaking great, no matter how much I complain about it. Why? Well I can tell you.

• It makes you unique.
• If you're short, people notice that about you and tease you about it, which can be annoying but it's just them pointing out that you're short and that they kind of like it.
• You are easily spotted... Well if you're not in a crowd, because you'd get lost among taller people.

Me and Taylor at the White Barn (Photo credits to Faith from our shared album)

• Hugging is fun with pretty much everyone
• If you are short, with friends, or more than friends, you get to go on your tiptoes to hug a person and you get the comfort of resting your head on their torso. (As seen in the above picture)
• You automatically know where to put your arms in the hug.

• You get hand me downs.
• Honestly I'm pretty sure that over 50% of my closet is hand me downs (Thanks Taylor and Faith, major contributors) and it's freaking wonderful. I get all these wonderful beautiful clothes for free
• If you like someone's fashion taste, you can gain a little part of that from hand me downs and develop it to be your own.
• You get picked up and are part of stunt things.
• I was trying to avoid dance in this, but being short is good when you're a dancer. The short people are the ones involved most in stunting, which is something I love.
• It's easier to convince people to give you a piggy back ride.
• More room
• I've heard many tall people complain about how cramped certain things like cars and planes and desks and most seated positions can be. I don't have to worry about that
• I get to lay in bed and stretch my legs straight and arms above my head and still have room.
• Prime spot in groups
• Whether this refers to pictures or to gathering around a phone, I always manage to get near the front because people can see over my head.
• People see me as less of a bother when trying to see near the front.
• Navigating crowds
• I don't know why but I can always just slip easily through crowds. Maybe I see gaps taller people don't or people don't mind me sneaking through
• If I don't want to weave through them, I can always stand behind someone taller and allow them to part the crowd. 

So to summarize, before you get annoyed at someone using your head as an arm rest, again(which is never funny, just rude btw), think about the advantages you have to being short.

So Very Disney (Part 3)

Hello fellow strangers and people I have pestered to read my blog,

We're here, finally, the home stretch of so very disney, the final part. Considering I had to have three parts to explain how much I enjoyed this experience, you probably already know how wonderful this was to me as well as why I am having a very short introduction to this post. Now, back to the story,

Disneyland was so much fun (Picture credits to me)

Saturday morning, I wake up in the Grand Californian hotel from the room service coming early and my mom groggily answering the door. I change into my tan onesie and clothes to wear over it, my bag already packed for the parade. We turn on HGTV (it's become a travel tradition), and eat the most wonderful granola and fruit breakfast ever. Then, I get my face ready for the competition, which takes a surprisingly large amount of time and energy, and slick back my hair using mousse in a coffee cup that I got from the Volmrichs. I put on my Park City Dance jacket and book it to the lobby to meet everyone else. We then wait for the Volmrichs and leave to Small World, where we are meeting for the parade. Here, I learn that we're the absolute last group to march in the parade.

Fast forward a few hours past the Staff Members Only sign when we're waiting in anticipation as the 540 dancers in front of us head out the gates and we see Peter Pan and Ariel backstage (SQUEE!!!). We burst out with as much energy as we could get, which considering we were practicing in a high altitude place then went to sea level, was quite a lot. I could see some people doing the dance with us, as they had already seen 540ish other dancers performing this. It was such a rush and I didn't even mind how sweaty I was. I wasn't really tired after performing it for over 20 minutes straight and I thank adrenaline for that, but my feet were so sore.

After changing and wiping off sweat and excessive amounts of makeup with a towelette, me and some others went on a few rides including my first loop coaster, California Screaming. Then, it was time for us to leave and rest for the performance the next day.

Sunday, we performed a dance to the song 'Better When I'm Dancing', by Meghan Trainor with everyone from the studio that came to Disney. Backstage we saw some people from Japan performing with batons and they looked so good. Anyway, after the stage performance, I went with the Volmrichs, Ali Herman, Faith and her sister, Rian, and a guide (thanks to the Volmrichs) around Disneyland. The guide let us skip the lines so we got to go on whatever rides we wanted whenever we wanted, so we posed quite a bit on California Screaming (see picture). That was amazing.

So overall the entire experience was truly magical. To summarize the entirety of So Very Disney, all I have to say is thank you Dance the Magic, thank you Park City Dance and thank you Volmrichs and other friends for making this such an amazing experience.

-Alicia