The Unknown Tapper and the Famous Ballroom Dancers

When you value something you should not value it because of the price of it. The real value is all the memories and feelings you had with the item or memory that you can't replace with any other valuable item or special moment. Two things I value are my Tap Shoes and the day I met two “Dancing with the Stars” pro dancers.

I buckle up the strap on each foot and walk into the room. The clack,clack the shoes are making is one of the most beautiful sounds ever. I value my tap shoes for multiple reasons. One reason is that you can make sounds with your feet that are so unique and you can't make sounds like that in any other type of shoe. When I dance around in my tap shoes the outside world disappears and I am free to be me and not make a mistake. However, class can be very stressful when you can't get a step right no matter how much times you practice, or when a teacher is being extra hard on you. But it all works out at the end when you nail a step. Whenever I do a step correctly I feel good about myself and I can't help but smile. It boosts up my confidence when a dance teacher gives me a compliment in class. I have been a tap dancer since I was 5 years old and its my favorite style to learn, I never plan on quitting my training as a tap dancer.

We all dream of scenarios some may dream about wearing a gold medals around their neck, some may dream about passing their math test. Others may dream about meeting the people who tell them not to give up, even if its not directly to there face. So when the opportunity came for me to meet two of my favorite dancing with the stars pros I didn't think twice about the offer.  It all started about a week before the actual show and I was using my ipod and I found a link that said “Derek Hough, Peta Murgatroyd Reality check live at mohegan sun”. I double checked the article and made sure I wasn't going insane. I ran downstairs and told my mom about this event and she didn't give it a second thought her immediate answer was yes. I was so happy I couldn't stop talking about it. The day finally came June 24th 2012. Are we there yet are we there yet!! everyone in the car kept asking. Almost was there reply each time. We finally arrive and I can feel myself getting exciting, I couldn’t believe I was actually here. We went to are spot right away because there was a lot of people that were about to show up. We wait and wait in this one spot for ever and finally the clock hits 3:00. The screams of all the people while we watch them dance and the laughs when they answer a funny question. Finally at 4:00 its time for the meet and greet. We wait in a long line that seems like forever I think about what i'm going to say half the time I am waiting. Finally the line comes down to me. I go onto the stage and they both say hi to me I say hi and laugh (Which I always do when I'm nervous). I ask Peta for a hug and not to sound cheesy or anything but it was probably the best hug I have ever gotten. It was one of the best times of my life. Standing next to and talking to one of my biggest inspirations. All the votes I would use on them each monday and the nerves that ran through me when they were in the bottom. I never thought a day like that would happen. I will forever value that moment.

My valuable item and moment are similar in a few ways. One way being that I smile or get happy when I think about the day I met them or when I am in tap class. Nothing can replace the value in my tap shoes and erase that special moment standing next to the dancers. Although there are a lot of similarities in my item and memory they are also different from one another. My tap shoes are things I wear and my memory was with people that I only have pictures ( and a very strong memory) to remember.

I value these items for a lot of different reasons. I can't replace the memories that had with these items and I will never forget them. Both of these Items are really special to me.

You can't relive certain moments. So you should value everything you receive no matter what the price is or how big or small the memory is.

Off Balance a great read!!!!

Jennifer Rehm                           

Book Review

Off Balance By Dominique Moceanu with Paul and Terri Williams.

Touchstone, 2012.    Genre: Autobiographies

This book is about a girl name Dominique, She had very little money as a kid and her parents didn’t always get along, her dad was very strict towards her. At a young age Dominique found a love for gymnastics so her parents signed her up for lessons. What they thought was a just a hobby, soon would become her life. Doing gymnastics 45 hours a week at a young age soon was all Dominique new. This story goes through her life as a competitive gymnasts. She talks about her struggles with her coaches and all the pressure they put on her to never make a mistake. She said how they would get mad if she fell of beam during warm ups or didn’t do something they liked, she mentions how when she was at the olympics her dream was turning into a nightmare because she was scared if she did mess up and what her coaches and even her parents would say. To make her life even more stressful she finds out she has a sister she never met. She was angry with her parents because they told her 20 years later. Her parents tell her why they gave her up for adoption. Her sister’s name was Jennifer, she was born without legs and her parents couldn’t afford to take her to treatment or support her disability so they sent her to a family that would be able to provide that kind of service to Jennifer. But what confuses Dominique about this whole situation is she would have been 6 years when she was born and doesn’t remember her mom being pregnant or even a single mention about her.

“A rousing, intimate memoir” The Vouge.com said about their review of Off Balance.

I have read a lot of autobiographies in the past few years and Off Balance is one of the ones that stuck out to me the most. The way Dominiques life is described in the book will make you be hooked to it. You will laugh and maybe even cry with the emotion that is on every page, you will feel as if you are part of the story.

I can sort of relate to the topic in this book. Dominique has to balance life as a gymnast along with her school work and family/friends. For me as a dancer sometimes I don’t have enough time for it all. So I have to plan everything out in advance depending on my schedule that week.

Finding Makenzie Leach…

Still progress

Hunger Games- Katniss

How Live Now- Daisy

Prolog  

I’m Katniss and I’m with Daisy, this is our story after the war, after my battle with the hunger games. When we thought everything was back to normal, we were dead wrong… litteraly. In this story you will read about mine and Daisy’s journey trying to find our friend Makenzie. Here's how it all began.

   Chapter 1- Before everything changed

Me and Katniss are best friends we do everything together, from sleepovers, doing each others hair and telling secrets. We are like sisters. Are life's were completely turned around when I, Daisy had to live with my never meet relatives all the way in England and then the war broke out, so me and my cousins had to fend for ourselves. When we thought are aunt was on a work trip, she actually got killed so we got sent to different houses. Where as I, Katniss took my sisters spot in the hunger games and had to fight for the chance to live. Then after me and Peeta both lived I had started in uprising. We thought to ourselves what else could possibly go wrong in our lives.

Chapter 2- That Night

Then on one cold October day, October 28th to be exact the unthinkable happened. Me and Katniss were sitting in my room talking about are halloween party we had planned. When all of a sudden we heard a fatal scream. We nearly wet our pants it scared us to death. We looked out the window and I saw my neighbors light on. So me, Katniss and Daisy’s mom run next door to see what in the world has happened. Katniss’s mom rings the doorbell over 10 times, shakes the door knob to see if it will open. Then all of a sudden we hear someone yell ‘HElP!!!’ Daisy looks at us and says “That sounds like Mrs. Leach, Makenzies mom”. Then Katniss says “I think there is a spare key behind the bush”, so all three of us dig through the tree and finallyDaisy's mom says “I found it”. She opened the door and we charged up the stairs like a herd of elephants, Daisy say “ Mrs. Leach where are you” Mrs. Leach’s response is “I’m in here, I need help!”. Daisy says “ Its coming from Kenzi’s room, we run into her room and Mrs.Leach is on ground. And you wouldn’t believe what was beside her…

Chapter 3- The Disapearence

My mom runs over to Mrs. Leach and says Kassadee are you ok she yells “SHE’S GONE, SHE’S GONE!!!, with a fatal cry in between. “wait whos gone” me and Katniss say at the same time. Please talk to us Kass you can trust us. Mrs. Leach stands up and my mom sits her on Makenzie’s desk chair. Mrs Leach then begins to tell us, “ I was downstairs cooking dinner and I heard a crash upstairs, I asked Kenzi if she was all right. No one responded. I call her down for dinner to see if she would. Still nothing happened. Then I start to panic, she always comes down when I call her. So I just tried to relax myself and thought maybe she is in the bathroom. So I gave her about 10 minutes and I hear another crash and a scream. It was Makenzie I tell you! someone was hurting her.” Before she finished telling us the rest she blew her nose into a tissue her eyes were bright red like cherrys. Then my mom asks “what happened next”? Mrs.Leach continued the story “I ran up the stairs, I ran for my life, I ran until I got to her room. I pushed open the door and no one was in there. we take a long pause. My mom is holding Mrs. Leach’s hand and me and Daisy are trying are best not to cry, no matter how much we want to. Daisy tells Mrs. Leach to continue on with the story.  Mrs. Leach then takes in a big breath and she starts to bawl her eyes out, over there she says, look what they did to my little girl.” The tears pour out of her eyes like a waterfall"

Chapter 4- The Evidance

We get up and walk over to Makenzie’s bed. We all gasped and nothing stopped us from crying, as tears were pouring out of are face we were looking at blood on Kenzi’s matress. We couldn’t believe what we saw. Mrs. Leach started crying harder and harder. Daisy then looks at me and says “ who would do such a thing? Makenzie was one of the nicest people on the planet who would ever want to hurt her. Katniss then blurts out “maybe we should call the police, there the only people who could help us figure out who kidnapped Kenzi”. “We can’t do that”. Mrs.Leach says as she starts panicking and looking for more clues around the room. “Why not” asked Daisy, because I was the last person in the house with her and they might think I killed her. “We know you didn’t kill Makenzie and we will make sure the police know that” Katniss says back.

Chapter 5- The call“What if they don’t believe me” Mrs.Leach asked, “you have to make them believe you” Daisy said, tell them you wouldn’t kill your own kid. “Your right” Mrs.Leached said as she picks up the phone. Me and Katniss were telling her she could do it and to just stay calm. Mrs.Leach dialed the number and someone answered she stayed silent for a minute and Katniss says “You can do this just tell the person what happened”. Mrs.Leach then says “I would like to report a missing peson”. “A missing person” The policeman said “can you please come down to the station so we can ask you questions about this person”. “Yes I will leave now” Mrs.Leach Said “can you just tell us the name of the missing person so we can get it out there” The policeman asked. “Her name is Makenzie Leach, Middle name-Jane”. “Thank you the man said”. Mrs.Leach asked Me and Daisy to stay her incase Makenzie showed up. We agreed that we would stay and keep her updated. She then asked Daisy's mom to come down to the police station with her. My mom said she would go with her, before we Knew it they were gone.

Chapter 6- The idea

What seemed like years was only hours, we were in Kenzi’s room waiting. Me and Katniss were looking at Kenzi’s old stuff. When all of a sudden Katniss looks at me and says “Maybe we should look for Makenzie ourselves”, “your insane” Daisy says. “We could get killed” Daisy added. “Oh come on Daisy what is so dangerous about this. I mean you went to England during a war and I went through the hunger games, and look we are both here to tell the story”. Katniss Says. “But we almost didn’t make it” added Daisy “I ended up in hospital when I got back home and you nearly took your own life”. “Good point” Added Katniss. “ But after all we went through I still think we should give a try” Katniss quickly added. “I guess we could give it a try” Daisy said. “Are you with me” Katniss asked, “But you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to” she added. After a little pause and thinking Daisy finally agreed to Katniss’s plan. “I will do” Daisy said. “Omg really” Katniss said with a little joy. Daisy then replys “yea if it will help us find Makenzie then I’m all for it”.

Chapter 7- Where is Makenzie Leach

A little while later Makenzie’s mom and Daisy’s mom came home. We ran down stairs and asked them what took so long. Mrs.Leach replys and says “they asked us a lot of questions, from  her height,weight,eye color, birthday, that last thing I saw her wearing. They even asked me questions like her favorite shoe, things she does in her spare time, what kind of friends she hangs out with and so much more”. “when are they going to start searching for her” Daisy asked, “sometime tomorrow and they will keep me updated with any information they find”. Mrs.Leach said. Then Katniss tells the moms about are idea. “We want to try and search for Kenzi” she bulleted out. “Are you serious” Katniss’s mom says, “That’s far too dangerous for kids like you” Mrs.Leach added. “But come on, we have done so many other things over the summer remember”, Katniss added.