There’s always a point in time where you come to terms with who you are
and what you aspire to be. It’s not always easy and the people around you
may accept it or they may not accept it because it is just not, quote on
quote, nor mal or what everyone else is doing. You take these steps and
make these sacrifices to do something you enjoy, but there are others
around you who do one or the other; they hold you back, or they accept you
and help you reach your full potential.
In the film Billy Elliot, the main character, a young boy tries to find
who he really is, despite all the hardships he is facing around him.
Billy’s upbringing in a home where a boy is supposed to box and do “manly”
things makes it hard for him to realize that he really aspires to dance.
He doesn’t want to disappoint his father, so he hides it from him. It
takes Billy awhile to realize that his true calling really is dance, and
that he pretty good at it. But when he does see it, he practices so much,
and literally dances through the streets.
The part that struck me the most was when Billy left dance class and
started to dance through the street, because this is the moment in the
movie where he realizes that he does love to dance. At first Billy used
dancing as a way to escape from boxing, but it soon became a way for him
to escape the outside world, and all things that come along with it. He
accepts not only that he likes to dance, but that his hard work is
creating him into a wonderful dancer.
I love how Billy becomes this carefree, young boy who, for five seconds,
does not worry about all the things going on around him, such as him being
a male dancer. He just dances down the street (with his ballet shoes
around his neck, which he usually does not do, he always replaces them
with the boxing gloves) and does not care who sees him or what they think.
He reminds me of a bird first taking flight from the nest. He realizes and
he can fly, and nothing is going to make him turn back.
This is connected to my life in more ways than one. But the most
significant is that I know who I am and who I want to become, and it took
me awhile to realize it, but now that I know I am not going to let
anything hold me back. I was once a caged bird, but now I can fly free and
sing. There may be people around me who don’t believe that I can become
anything, but I know that deep down in my heart make it. There have been
times when I didn’t think I could become anything because people have
tried to hold me back by saying I wasn’t good enough or that I couldn’t do
it because I was a girl, etc. But what they don’t know is that this girl
is strong-minded, determined, and has the mentality to be whoever and
whatever she wants to be.