Teaching Yourself

    Have you taught yourself something before? Even if it is the simplest thing on earth, you may have taught yourself something. It could be something as simple as keeping your mouth shut instead of talking when you do not need to be talking, or how to tie your shoes. 

    I taught myself how to walk, but it was not the normal kind of walking. I would walk on the knuckles of my toes instead of on my actual feet. I did this because I always wanted to be a ballerina. I did not do it just because of that either, I thought it was neat, and “cool.”

    When I first started this everyone was like, “Wow, look at her, she is being crazy.” After a few days my mom got concerned because that is how I would walk, on the knuckles of my toes. She thought that I would grow out of it with time. She was right, but I forgot about it after a few years, it took me that long to realize that I was not going to be a ballerina. 

    I did not walk around all the time like this; I do not want you to get me wrong there. I usually only did this around the house, or if we had company I would be the entertainment. Everyone seemed to think that it was amazing that without any help or anything I could walk, and even run on the knuckles of my toes. 

    I started doing this because when I was at dance class, taking my jazz and tap classes, I saw the girls in the little tutus and the slippers. My parents did not want me to take ballet. So instead of having a teacher I decided that if I wanted to do it I would do it my way. I think that is why I enjoyed it so much. 

    The other day, here at college, imagine this, after watching Center Stage, and Save the Last Dance, I decided to see if I could still do my “fun little trick.” So I stood up took a deep breath and goy up on my toe knuckles like it was nothing. My roommates looked at me with the “Oh my, what are you doing,” expression on their faces. They thought that it was neat when they realized that I was standing on my knuckles. I told them that I used to do that when I was little and that I was wondering if I could still do it after all these years. I did not think that I would be able to though, because I am a lot heavier than when I was a kid. 

    Walking like that was something that was fun and entertaining for me. I think this was because it is something that I learned to do on my own; I did not learn it from someone else. I never found anyone else that could do the same thing either. So, I think that this set me apart from the crowd when I was a child, it made me an individual. 

    You can teach yourself amazing things, if you let yourself. Everything you learn comes from you. Even if you have someone else teaching you, you have to teach yourself to let others teach you. You do not learn just because your being taught something, you learn because you want to. 

    People teach themselves a lot of different things. No matter whether it is something great or something as small as walking on the knuckles of your toes. If you learn it with all your heart by yourself, it is yours and yours alone; this is what makes teaching yourself something so special.