Even after graduating high school and having to leave my hometown dance studio –my second home – I either still remember all of these day-to-day struggles vividly, or I’m actually still living through them.

1. When you stretch just a little, every bone in your body cracks so damn loudly.

It’s fine, I’ve come to the conclusion I’ll just have to get hip replacements in the future.

2. You have to dodge hundreds of stares when you go to a restaurant with your family after a recital.

3. You feel your blood start boiling when someone says dance isn’t a sport –because it’s probably the hardest sport.

4. The number of bobby pins you’ve bought and lost is pretty much equal.

5. Most of the time, you don’t know if your feet are bleeding, or if it’s just too hot inside your pointe shoes.

6. The ONE time you decide to miss class is the week everyone learns an entire routine.

7. Waking up sore every day becomes a regular thing after years of dancing, and you just have to deal with the fact that you must limp down the stairs.

8. When your teacher says “one more time,” it actually means, “until you get it right.”

9. There are enough embarrassing photos of you in ugly costumes to last a lifetime

10. When you wake up and look in the mirror to find a million bruises you don't remember getting.

11. Or just bruises in places they shouldn't be from all the floor work (yes that is my hip bone).

12. If your boobs are bigger than a B cup, every time you have to jump, you feel like this inside:

13. And you can never wear open-toed shoes in public, because people are grossed out by your nasty ballet feet.

14. When your teacher is looking, your pirouettes are guaranteed to look awful –but you manage to do five perfectly the second they turn around.

15. And most importantly, this phrase will forever be ingrained in your memory: