“It gave me this sense of thankfulness.”

Pranjal Verma

“Bharatanatyam is a Indian classical dance and I’ve been doing it since I was 4 years old, and it’s taught me so much. I actually didn’t even like dancing until my seventh year of dance, which is obviously not a good thing. But the routine of it taught me to persevere and take hits, because it’s not easy, you know, getting up every Sunday morning at 8 and dancing for two to three hours. It really helps you develop this strict moral code and it holds me to a higher standard to this very day. It gave me this sense of thankfulness, not only to my culture but the outlook it gives me into other cultures in India. It’s cool to be able to see that … as cheesy as it sounds, it’s really taught me to never give up and it’s motivated me. [It has] also taught me that I can do so much more with my day that I never could have possibly expected.”