College Admissions Essay: Dance In High School

Growing up I could never find another activity that I was talented at, enjoyed, and loved doing other than dancing. I have been dancing since I was three years old. I have taken almost every style of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary just to name few. Dance was the one of the only things I spent my time doing. Between the solos, practices, and competitions I really just did not have time for anything else. I loved dancing but I always felt like there was something that I was missing out on. I always felt like I should expand my horizons and try something different. Unexpectedly, my junior year in high school I discovered my other passion.

My sophomore year I had left public school and enrolled in online school so

I could focus more on my dancing. Public school was not conducive to my dance schedule. Dance was all I knew so that was the only thing I really cared about. The summer before my junior year, I decided that I wanted to go back to Atascocita High School and just dance on the drill team. I realized that dancing did not have to be the sole purpose for existing and ultimately other things led me to that decision. I registered and joined the Atascocita Patriettes Dance Team at Atascocita High School. When I had to pick my classes I did not know what electives to take along with my core subjects. I picked a random class that the counselor suggested called graphic design since I had told her that I liked working with computers.
On the first day of junior year I met the teacher Mrs.

Priesmeyer and I immediately knew I would like her. I do not remember anything in particular as to why I felt this way. For whatever reason I had a really good feeling about her and this class. One of the first things Mrs. Priesmeyer said to the class was, “How many of you took this class just because you needed to fill up another elective credit?” When she asked this about half the class raised their hands. She then proceeded to explain that we all made a good choice because this would be one of the most interesting and exciting classes we will take in high school. Like me, most of the other students in the class did not really understand what graphic design was. Once she began explaining what the class was all about, we were all very interested. She explained that we would be working on programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I had definitely heard of Photoshop before so I then began to have a better idea of what the class was about. She also told us that we would learn about typography, color theory, art history, art styles, and different advertising/marketing techniques that we could apply to graphic design. “ And by the way, we do not use Microsoft Paint in here.” She concluded before class ended. I did not understand what she meant by this but now I find it slightly amusing that some people think that is what graphic design is about because that year I would learn that graphic design was more in

depth than that.
About halfway through that year sometime in the winter semester, Mrs. Priesmeyer talked to our class about the Advanced Graphic Design class and how we could apply to be in it. At this point, I had not really thought about this being something I could actually pursue past high school so I did not really put anymore thought into applying to be in that class. I did not think I was good or talented enough to be in it. She handed out an information sheet attached with an application to the whole class but I just put it right back into my bag without looking at it really.
A while after this, we started working on a movie poster project.

We had to make a movie poster in the minimalist, constructivist or pop art style. I chose to do a Black Swan movie poster that was Minimalist and Constructivist. One day in class when I was working on my poster Mrs. Priesmeyer stood behind my chair and was watching what I was doing. “ Wow Jessica that is really good you are portraying the minimalist style perfectly.” I told her thank and kept on working. Her compliment motivated me to make my poster even better. At the end of class she announced that their would be a contest between the graphic design classes and that the Advanced Graphic Design kids would pick the best ones from each class. Whichever posters they picked would get printed out, laminated, and would receive a grade of 110. This motivated me even more.

About a week later everyone submitted his or her posters online. A couple of days later she showed us which posters had been chosen by the Advanced Graphic Design students. I was so excited that my poster had been chosen. That moment was a huge turning point for me because I finally felt accomplished in something other than dance. Everyone in my class also talked about how cool my poster was. After class Mrs. Priesmeyer told me that I should definitely apply for the Advanced Graphic Design class because she thought I had a lot of talent and

potential.
By the end of my junior year she told me that I was for sure in the Advanced Graphic Design class and I was so excited. My senior year was the year that I really improved and developed as a Graphic Designer. Because of this class I learned how to deal with clients and got to fulfill design requests for the community and school. That year Mrs. Priesmeyer really helped me decide how I could incorporate graphic design into my career path. She told me that I should not major in Graphic Design because it was a very narrow field and thought that I had other talents besides just graphic design. Because of her, she is the reason why I am choosing to major in Mass Communications in Advertising. She helped me realize what my talents were and how I could pursue them. I am very thankful for her because without her I still might not know what I wanted to do with my life today.
Even though I will always love dance I will also love graphic design. I realized that dance was not the only thing I wanted to do with my life so I am very thankful for the two years I got to spend in Graphic Design and that I got to have Mrs. Priesmeyer as a teacher. Because of graphic design, I now know exactly what I want to do with my life. I feel very blessed to have had this experience because there are a lot of people my age who still do not know what they want to do with their lives.