Lessons

The lights are bright. Familiar faces are cheering in the crowd below. It is so incredibly hot. I'm sweating. And smiling. Always smiling. Our music cues, and I feel confident that all of the time spent training would kick in like instinct. We complete our shines and then turn to face eachother to start the partner work. He looks uncomfortable..."I can't remember a thing," he mouths. "I'm sorry."
I keep on smiling.
We knew the music to the very instrumental beats.
I try to breathe and find a moment to recover.
But I can't cue him. I am not the lead. All I can do is go with the flow.
We freestyle...thankful that we are well-practiced. He dips me into the end of our performance.
The music stops and we bow and the crowd cheers and we keep on smiling.
I'm glad it's over.

The other couples execute their choreography beautifully. They look absolutely stunning. My partner appologizes profusely and wants to analyze everything that happened. I politely comply but don't wan't to talk about it yet. I am thinking already about the lessons I'm supposed to learn from this experience. That's what everyone is supposed to focus on when things go wrong. What lessons can I learn from this?

There are a million.
Don't be discouraged, keep trying, make light of things, laugh, move on.

I'm grateful for my eternal supporters.
And especially for my husband whose opinion will always mean the world to me.

I think about the journey and will always remember how rewarding it was.