Do you remember in the movie “Million Dollar Baby” when Hilary Swank says: “Problem is, this is the only thing I ever felt good doing. If I’m too old for this then I got nothing. That enough truth to suit you?”

She says this after Clint Eastwood, her coach, tells her that she is too old, too inexperienced, and started too late to become a professional boxer. In short, her dreams are unrealistic.

At the ripe age of 19, I became too old to be a professional ballerina, bringing that aspiration to a definitive end. It was no mystery. I had terrible arches, practically non-existent turnout, and a bad knee so I wasn’t surprised when I was forced to reexamine my hopes and dreams.

After crying a little (okay, maybe a lot), over this loss, I made a game plan. I was determined that my dance journey was not over for good.

Enter Salsa Dancing.

I fell in love with Latin dance after only one class. It was time to start over, begin again from ground zero.

As it is with most pursuits, it’s hard to progress unless you make a move in the right direction. For me, that ‘move’ was relocating to Portland, Oregon. I stepped into the salsa studio telling myself that though dancing had always been ‘serious’ for me, I would just have fun.

That lasted all of a month.

It wasn’t long before dance once again took center-stage in my life. It was an involuntary thing, really. I can safely say that I don’t feel that I had much control over how quickly my obsession grew. Not only was I able to dance again, but the doors swung wide for me to keep in touch with ballet through teaching.

There’s another line in “Million Dollar Baby” that says: “If there’s magic in boxing, it’s the magic of risking everything for a dream nobody sees but you.” I may not be a boxer (okay, maybe I do have experience punching someone… with my elbow. By accident. And it wasn’t my opponent, but a well-meaning dance partner. Does that qualify?), but I feel this sentiment deep in my soul. It took years for those around me to understand why I was so passionate about starting over from scratch. They wondered why I couldn’t ‘take it easy.’

Simple: I had a burning dream that no one saw but me.