Ballet.

I have just finished my Grade 8 ballet exam. It feels like the end of an era, entering a world where I don't go to ballet class every week. It's going to be strange, and it is already very sad. The tears afterwards were not because the exam went badly, on the contrary, but because we will dearly miss the dancing, the laughing and the friendship. We will miss our lovely teacher, the principle, who continues to put her heart and soul into teaching after all this time. And we will miss out other teacher who has had years of doing our hair and preparing us for exams as well as teaching and consoling us when we feel down. I will also miss the pianist who always makes sure that we are on the beat and ready to begin. He shed a few tears himself today, as he said goodbye to us all. I will also miss the ballet studio that has the two frustrating pillars in the middle of the room that you have to space yourself around, and the old photographs of performances that hang on the whitewashed walls. 

I will miss the gratification of trying hard and completing the grades. When you complete a ballet exam each year, no matter what the result, you always feel a great sense of pride and achievement that you got yourself to this level, and that you have performed for a London examiner and proved to her that you can do it. Thirteen years down the line and I can't imagine my life without it, but I'm sure I'll get used to it...eventually.