Humans of Tam features anonymous students and snippets of their voices and experiences.

It [ballet] was taking over my life pretty much. I couldn’t do anything and ballet at the same time. I had no social life at all because I was either at ballet or doing homework or eating food. I had no free time.

I was doing five hours of homework in two hours. Somedays I just wouldn’t be able to finish it or I was up into 1 or 2 in the morning because ballet ended at 8.

Everyone there [Marin Ballet] was very nice and supportive, but the teachers pushed us a lot. And pushing yourself was what they really wanted us to do. So when the teachers weren’t looking you were still doing everything to your absolute best even if she was on the other side of the room correcting someone else. It became a fight within yourself.

You pretty much can’t [pursue ballet and balance school work at the same time]. The people that do that their life is ballet and they love it. And it’s this thing that makes them really happy. They don’t need a social life because their social life is the people at ballet. And I felt like that for a long time and it was very fun for me and I enjoyed going every single day, but eventually it became more of a chore.
And then another opportunity came along for less time and less pressure, but still seemed really fun so I decided to do that instead. I am definitely going to miss it. I am wearing my Nutcracker jacket right now and it felt so weird to put it on this morning because I am not in ballet anymore, but it is still such a big part of my life.