This I Believe by Davia T.

When I was younger, my parents always told me that I needed to try something before I said I

didn’t like it or I wasn’t good at it. I was always trying different foods so I could officially say

whether or not I liked them and the same with sports. I did various sports when I was younger

including dancing, tumbling/gymnastics, soccer, cheerleading, softball, volleyball, basketball,

wrestling, etc. While I was younger, the one I stuck with the most was dancing.

I was four years old when I decided to dance. I was sitting on my parents’ bed when my

mom asked me, “What would you like to do today?”

I said,” I am not sure, what is there to do?”

Then my mom brought over the phone book and flipped to the pages that showed all the

activities to do based on the area that we lived. She told me that we could go to Planet Ice to ice

skate or we could go to Richland Lanes to go bowling. We kept looking because I always went

ice skating or bowling. She then mentioned that I could go check out Linda’s Dance Studio to

see if I’d like it. I was really thrilled to go there. This decision changed my life for the next 10

years. So, my mom called the dance studio and they told me to come and watch a class to see

if I would like it. I loved it. So, my mom signed me up for a hip-hop class. We went to

competitions for this dance and I knew I was going to stick with it. The next year, I signed up for

a hip hop and jazz class. Sadly, after this year, we decided to leave this studio because my

dance teacher wanted to start her own studio. However, my dance teacher (Jess) took us with

her and started The Dance Factory which was moved later on from Jennerstown to Sipesville.

As the years went by, I continuously signed up for more and more dance classes until I

was taking about 11 dance classes a week. It was very stressful, but I loved it. I dedicated all of

my time to dancing. When we started to get seriously into dancing, we took up many

competitions. We traveled to New York, Gettysburg, Harrisburg, etc. One year I decided to take

on two solos, which would put you in the Super Soloist category in one of the competitions. For

this specific competition, you would compete once in Johnstown and a few months later in

Hershey. In Johnstown, I was so excited to do this until I lost in the Super Soloist category. I was

very upset, and I was determined to win when we went to Hershey. I pushed myself harder and

worked as hard as I could so that I was able to win Super Soloist.

While I was backstage in Hershey, I told myself to give it my all and so did my

mom, my dad, my brother, and the rest of my family that was there supporting me all the way. I

went out onto the stage and tried my absolute best. When the awards were being announced, I

got very nervous. However when I heard, “And the Super Soloist winner is…. Davia Tremain!” I

never felt that much excitement in my life. This is why I believe you have to fail in order to

succeed because it is the only thing that s going to make you try harder and work for what you

want.