Hey! My name is Kaitlyn!

I am a current Dance (and Elementary Education) Major at Ball State University. I have a passion for dance and specifically for teaching dance to others. I wish to one day open a studio of my own and to be able to spread the love of dance that I have grown up with throughout the community!

Interest and Identity Statement

I am a queer, white, woman who has lived in Indiana for her whole life. I have been a part of the upper-middle class my entire life and am a daughter, sister, grand-daughter, niece, and cousin. My family is one of the most important things to me and I would do anything for them. I have been known to always put others before myself, which is something that comes back to bite me sometimes. I have always been a very caring and kind person, who will extend a hand to anyone who needs one. I am 19 years old, and dance has been a huge part of my life for the past 16 years. I wish to someday start my own dance studio to teach others the love of dance that I have had for the majority of my life. I am currently teaching 3–6-year-olds at my old dance studio, which I have been doing for the past six years, and this has reinforced my love for teaching others dance. My favorite dance styles include acrobatics, tap, jazz, and contemporary, which I have grown to love since I started them at the ages 3, 7, 8, and 11, respectively.  

I have taught children from all ages throughout my dancing career and quite a few of the older students that I have worked with (ages 13-18) have been queer. I want to work to show them that that should not be something that holds them back, but otherwise pushes them forward to be someone who can be looked up to and create amazing piece of art. My entire family has been extremely proud of me through my entire life because of my leadership and artistic capabilities and one of my main goals is to always keep accomplishing things that make them continue to be proud of me. I want my work to give others the hope that they can do the same things that I can and I wish to inspire all of those who I connect with and have connected with in the past to pursue their dreams, no matter how far away they may seem in the moment. 

Strengths and Areas of Improvement

As a student, I feel as if I have many areas of both strengths and things to be improved. Some of my strengths include being punctual, having determination, and being able to solve problems. I always show up to every class on time unless I have otherwise communicated with the professor for a valid reason of missing class with ample time before the class. This allows me to learn all the information from class myself without depending on others to get it. I have always been able to do anything that I have set my mind to because I have a very strong sense of determination to learn and to improve myself. I have always had a deep desire to succeed, and I do not allow things to get in my way of doing so. I possess a very good sense of problem solving; I dislike when things come up which try to distract me from my goals, so I always make to deal with these problems quickly and effectively. If I have a bigger problem, this may take me a few tries, but I do not give up and I eventually am able to conquer any problem. 

I have been slowly working through some of the many weaknesses that I admittedly possess, including procrastination, fear of failure, being a perfectionist, and being a people pleaser. I have always had very tough issues with procrastination, always putting tasks off for as long as I can. While these tasks always get done, they could be done better and in less stressful ways. To help aid this, I will start making a planner with set dates to start and finish tasks, which will be long before the due date so that any errors will be able to be fixed. A fear of failure has followed me throughout my entire life, I have always wanted to do everything right on the first try, even if it’s a very hard task that takes dedication and hard work to become good at. To help combat this, I will start to understand that doing something wrong is not a failure but instead shows that improvement is being made to get better. This fear of failure is also very connected to my sense of perfectionism that I have. In my mind, I think that if something isn’t done perfectly, it isn’t done correctly. To help myself see that this is not the case, I am going to tell myself that it is okay to not do things perfectly because that simply means that I can improve later; if I am automatically perfect, I cannot grow. Lastly, being a people pleaser has always been something that I have fought. I often put others’ opinions of myself over my own. I have caught myself doing things for the benefit of others and not my own many more times than I could mention. To help to put a stop to this, I will start to do things that will benefit myself instead of others and to simply stop thinking about others’ thoughts about myself and the things that I am doing. 

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