Hey!

Hope your week is going well. We’re almost to the weekend! That’s a good reason to cheer.

If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram, then you probably saw this photo from Tuesday night.

Those are my tap shoes in between my work boots.

I grew up playing soccer. I love the sport. I played it for years, took a little break, wound up having heart surgery, and then went back to the sport I loved. I haven’t found somewhere to play during the winter yet, but it might happen again. Instead, when I moved out here back in 2016, I’d somehow tapped into this previously hidden well of bravery and wanted to dive even deeper. I wanted to do something I’d always wanted to do but never had the chance to because soccer and that thing I’ve always wanted to try was tap dancing.

It was a struggle that first year, I’m not going to lie. But it was also rewarding as hell to fight with something and win a little bit each week. Each new eight count was a battle to win and making it to recital – feeling good about recital – was more or less winning all the battles to get to the final boss.

This year there’s still the tap struggle, and I added jazz to the mix.

I’m not graceful. I can’t pivot. And yet on Tuesday nights starting in September I set aside the steel-toe work boots and step into the studio to try something new, and fight more battles. The jazz one I’m really not entirely sure I’m going to win, but apparently it looks pretty good and I’m doing fine for someone who’s never done this in her life and as for the tap part of it, well…that’s still one of my favorite parts of Tuesday nights. It’s also why I have “Black Velvet” stuck in my head for hours.

If you haven’t already seen it, you can check out of me and my tap teacher in the studio in a video here.

And remember, friends, it’s almost the weekend.

Hope & Kindness,

-ML