As a child I was fortunate enough to have a very committed mother who made sure that I had every opportunity to help me develop to be the best I could be. Every day after school I had a different extra curricular activity- swimming, irish dancing, harp,piano, gymnastics and ballet. As I was getting a taste of everything there were a few things that I was better at than others.I felt I was a more musical child and lacked the co-ordination and agility for dancing and other sports.
I also never considered myself to be have any flair for art and dropped it as a subject after first year secondary school again believing that I didn't have the fine motor skills to succeed in the subject. I avoided all sports activities throughout secondary school and joked with friends about being uncoordinated and non-athletic.
However as an adult there are quite a few things that have surprised me when I began to re-discover things from my childhood and adolescence. When I began my postgraduate degree in primary teaching in Edinburgh I had the opportunity to take many classes that I had in school, art being one of them. I felt quite nervous about the prospect of teaching art as my memories as a young teenager were that I wasn't good at it. It wasn't until one of my teaching placements when I needed to do a sample drawing of Steve Jobs for the class that my fight or flight hormone kicked in. I nervously decided I was going to just go for it. When I actually sat down to draw I was so surprised with the results and it gave me courage and confidence in my abilities.Now art is my favourite subject to teach and I pride myself in having creative displays in my classroom.
Another thing that I have recently started is adult ballet classes.My memories of ballet as a child was being in a production of Swan Lake closing my eyes with passion doing the dying swan with my arms flapping in the most awkward and uncoordinated fashion and my friends being moved onto the more advanced classes while I stayed put at the same stage for several years. I have just joined a Beginners class at Dance Base and I'm not sure whether its being older and more confident in myself or having an encouraging teacher but my hang ups have disappeared and I find myself picking up the moves like everyone else and feeling graceful which is something I have never felt being a self diagnosed dyspraxic.
I suppose I am writing this post to say that getting older is great and its never too late to try again at something! Hang ups and awkwardness are a large part of being an adolescent and its so comforting to now be 30 and be able to turn my back on all of that and start fresh- confident, graceful and to not be better than others but just as good!
