2. Embrace the shake

I've always loved dancing. It was my passion & I was lucky enough to compete for most of my childhood. Going to dance was the best distraction & it helped me during the hard times in my life. School on the other hand, was where I started to become less confident in myself. I never felt like I was understanding the concepts like my classmates were & I started to feel like I wasn't smart enough.  My struggle with academics & in classrooms started to take a toll on my mental health. No matter how hard I tried I felt like nothing was clicking, this is when I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. Knowing that I had these learning disabilities I felt like school was always going to be a struggle for me so I took a break from dance to start focusing on my studies. During my break, I was constantly frustrated & confused why everything was taking me longer to process. I spent my time figuring study habits that work for me & the best way for me to learn to understand the concepts in school. During my break from dance I heard about a young girl named Haley. Haley was diagnosed with Down Syndrome as a baby & has been attending the same public high school as me. Haley wanted to be apart of my high school dance program but due to her disability, she didn't make the team. I felt sorry & upset for Haley & wanted to do something about it. This led me to start a non-profit organization for children & young adults with special needs to attend free weekly dance classes. My non-profit Dancing Without Limits took off in my area & I was lucky enough to have 3 of my dance friends help me. When Covid hit, we started our classes on zoom & it was by far the most rewarding part of high school for me to see everyone's smiling faces every week. To this day, I'm proud to say we are still providing dance classes for the children & young adults with special needs in the San Francisco Bay Area but most importantly, I'm so happy that I was able to share my love of dance to the special needs community because dance has helped me feel better about myself & I wanted Haley to feel the same way.