UNEDITED
Sreya sharing “I am homeschooled for the past 3 years. This was actually a bold decision made by my parents in order for me to pursue my interests, passion, and things that gave me satisfaction. Though I was attending my dance classes from the age of 7, I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of time I dedicated to it. And moreover, I wasn’t interested in taking up anything for which I had to pursue my studies. Due to the convincing thought me and my family had, that it was a waste of time going to school as it did not provide satisfaction nor did it contribute to my growth, we decided to quit schooling in order for me to pursue my dance. Gaining so much of time, I have channelized it into learning a lot of new and exciting things. For example, I learned farming, singing, and also tried my hand in arts. I have also completed my Arangetram in dance. I was also able to discover a lot about myself. I discovered that I loved reading novels and other books. Moreover, I got a lot of time to spend with my family which made me internally strong and healthy”.
2019 was one the best years i’ve had. Because i could do what i really wanted and also the way i wanted. Here is a small story/experience am sharing. Untill September of last year i was in my house doing stuff which i really liked like dancing(bharthanatyam), singing, playing veena, drawing, spending time with animals and many stuff like that. I loved dancing from when i was really small. I used to watch many people in my colony perform as we lived in a place where many peope learnt and loved dancing. I got inspired by watching them. So i finally decided to join a dance class. And first i wasnt really into it, but as time went i started to enjoy dancing. Slowly i started spending a major part of my day (around 7 hrs) in dancing because i wanted to dance to my satisfaction and become a really good dancer. I enjoyed going to classes and my parents and teacher really motivated me a lot to achieve what i wanted to. I also started performing with a group of dance class friends in small temples and auditoriums. Later, i joined aarohi because i felt that it would give me more exposure and an environment of people who are also like me wanting to explore many things. But as i joined there, i could not cope up with dancing as much as i could when i was back home as i could not attend the classes regularly. I really love dancing and i enjoy doing it. And because i could not attend, the quarlity of my performance bacame low. I was really upset anx frustrated with myself because i wasn’t practising frequently. But later, i made up my mind to dedicate 2 hours evey weekend to practise dance. I would dance, record my performance and send it to my teacher with whom i have been learning for the past 7 years. And gradually i started improving. Because i would get the feedback from my teacher which made me want to practise again and perfect it to my satisfaction. 2 hours a week seemed really less in time. But those few hours actually made a difference in my performance. And my teacher was also pretty satisfied with it. What i learned from this experience is that u cant see the dirt in your back and when someone helps you it really makes a difference in your journey. Through this whole experience i felt really proud of myself, that i could achieve what i wanted and that feeling gave me lot of confidence. This might be a really small incident, but to me it has made quite a bit of difference.