This summer, I got to cross something incredibly special off of my bucket list: performing internationally. I spent a week in Sibenik, Croatia with 15 amazing Kate Jablonski Statement (KJS) dancers performing our show DREAM STATE at the Sibenik Dance Festival. It was truly a perfect week.

But it didn’t start out that way. We had done two local performances of our show for our friends and family before our trip. The shows went amazingly, and all of us dancers were riding the post-show high in the week before our departure. We had a send-off cocktail party at Kate’s house where we celebrated with food, drinks, newly gifted embroidered backpacks, and a check from our shows’ profits.

Then our airline filed for bankruptcy protection and the pilots all went on strike. We were leaving for Croatia in four days, and all of the Scandinavian Airlines flights were being cancelled. Amazing! We had 2 options: (1) Buy a new flight for $1,700 and hope we could get a refund on our original flight or (2) Wait it out and hope the strike was resolved. About half of my friends decided to go with option 1. They rebooked their flights for a pretty penny and tried to get their money back from SAS. I really didn’t want to shell out an extra $1,700, so I anxiously stuck it out and hoped that the strike would be resolved within the next four days. Luckily, two days before our departure, the strike was resolved and all flights were back on as scheduled. I had spent the past few days so anxious and stressed about how I was going to get to Croatia and whether or not I’d need to pay for a ticket double the price of what I had expected. I’m so glad I didn’t buy another ticket though.

Thursday, July 21 – Friday, July 22

Six of us dancers were on the same flight, plus a few of my castmates’ family members. It was nice having a group of us to travel together. We first flew from Chicago to Copenhagen. I got lucky and had the whole row to myself. Then we had a short flight from Copenhagen to Split. There was a representative from the Sibenik Dance Festival (SDF) waiting to escort us to our ride. We drove about an hour through the Croatian mountainside to get to Hostel Scala in Sibenik. SDF provided our lodging for 3 days. The hostel was BEAUTIFUL! There was a gorgeous pool & restaurant area plus a bar. We were in rooms of 4 or 5 with bunk beds and a bathroom. I roomed with my friends Rachel, Meredith, Megan, and Taylor. We had so much fun rooming together, and we felt like we were living in a sorority house.

All of us dancers were so grateful for the pool at the hostel because it was unbelievably hot and humid in Sibenik. As my trip went on and I ventured further into the Balkans, I must have built up a tolerance to the climate. But that first week in Sibenik was the sweatiest week of my life. If I stepped outside for even one minute, I was drenched in sweat. The pool at our hostel was a lifesaver. Every time we left the hostel for any kind of activity, whether it was a meal, shopping, rehearsal… it was an unspoken agreement that we would all be jumping in the pool when we got back to cool off.

When my airport group arrived on Friday evening, we dropped our stuff and headed into the Old City to grab dinner. As we were eating, people were wandering in and out of the restaurant’s dining area from all of the nearby alleyways. We were eating when we noticed two people walking out of the shadows towards us and my friend Marit said, “Hey guys… I think that’s Miss Kate!” And sure enough, Kate and her husband Brian were walking right toward us. Four of our other castmates also ran into us later during our meal. That ended up being one of my favorite things about Sibenik. It is such a small, quaint town – especially the Old City area where we spent most of our time – that we were constantly running into each other when we were out and about. I don’t think I ever left the hostel without running into at least five other people from our KJS group. It made us feel right at home.

Saturday, July 23

The next morning, I woke up bright and early at 5:30am in a pool of my own sweat in my top bunk. Our hostel had A.C., but it didn’t work very well. You could really only feel it when you were standing directly above the A.C. unit with your face in front of the vents. It was ROUGH in the top bunks. After laying in bed for a while, I went downstairs to stick my feet in the pool. Four of my castmates came down to the pool shortly after, and we all went to breakfast together. SDF provided us with breakfast each morning at a nearby hotel along the waterfront. The breakfast was so good, and there were two adorable stray cats that we became very familiar with.

Once everyone had made their way down to breakfast, we all decided to freshen up and go explore. We walked up to St. Michael’s Fortress to see where our first performance would be. It was quite the hike, but the view from the top was incredible. We made our way back down and spent some more time wandering through the Old City before going back to the hostel to get ready for rehearsal.

Kate had left earlier than us because she was doing a radio interview, so we were waiting at the hostel to get picked up by SDF representatives who would take us to our rehearsal space. Kate’s interview ended up taking longer than expected, so our rehearsal time got pushed back. We had all been ready and waiting at the hotel pool, so we just ended up hanging out for about an hour. We made friends with the other guests at the pool, and some of my friends ended up having diving contests with them. They were doing flips into the pool while our new friends videotaped it to put on their Instagram stories. We were having so much fun until we got scolded by the hostel staff. Apparently there is no jumping or diving allowed in the pool. This became a running joke among our cast that there was no jumping, no diving, no splashing, and no FUN allowed at the pool.

Our first rehearsal went really well. It was our first time being all together since we had arrived. Kate led us through a warm up, which felt so great. We had never done a full cast warm up at previous rehearsals because we had always just warmed ourselves up, but it’s a warm up that we’re all familiar with from class. I got emotional at the start of our warm up when we were doing our beginning “take it up” reaches and “take it down” contractions. These are movements and stretches that are so familiar to me, but to do them in Croatia after so many months of anticipation felt extremely surreal. It was one of those “I made it” moments. In talking with my friends afterwards, I was not alone. It turns out we were all getting a little teary-eyed during those opening stretches.

We ran through our lifts and did a hard mark of the full show. We were all cheering each other on throughout the run, and our morale was high despite the extremely hot, barely air conditioned rehearsal space.

On our walk back from rehearsal, we saw posters advertising SDF with one of our dancers on it. We had Paige recreate her jump from the poster while we took pictures. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the hostel pool (but not having any fun because that’s against the rules) and drinking aperol spritzes.

Our plan for the evening was to get dressed up and walk along the waterfront to the rocky beach on the edge of town to see the sunset. Of course, my roommates and I passed another group of KJS dancers on our way there. We made it to the beach just in time for a beautiful view of Sibenik during golden hour and got a stunning view of the sunset. We took lots of pictures and then made our way back towards town to get something to eat. We ate at Pjat, which was a delicious restaurant just next to Hotel Jadran where our breakfasts were provided. We sat outside and shared a cheese board and a bottle of white wine while we chatted. The square just in front of the restaurant was a hub for kids driving around in little monster trucks. We were laughing watching at least 20 children driving their monster trucks in circles for hours on end. As expected, when we were finishing up our meal we saw a group of familiar faces walk by and flagged down our friends. We all ended up going to a nearby bar, Lasica, that eventually became a KJS favorite because of their 18 Kuna ($2.50) tequila shots. Sure, they were warm and served with lemon wedges rather than lime, but you can’t beat $2.50! That was how we justified ourselves every time we ordered one (and we ordered many over the course of our trip). We eventually headed back to the hotel for some shut eye.

Sunday, July 24

We again woke up and had a long, leisurely breakfast at Hotel Jadran. Ryanne, Meredith, and I had a relaxing morning walking through the Old City with smoothies as we explored all of the alleyways and got lost repeatedly.

We had a short rehearsal in the gym where Kate had been teaching master classes each day. We did a hard mark of our 20 minute show, which we would be performing the next day. We went through some quick notes, and then we were done.

Most of us planned to spend the afternoon at Jadrija Beach. After relaxing for a bit, we made our way to the waterfront and took a water taxi through the cove and over to the beach. The boat ride was beautiful, and the beach itself was rocky and gorgeous. We walked along the beach for a while to find a spot where we wanted to hang out. We got lemon gelato (one of the best gelatos I had the entire trip – it was so good I got it on the walk back too) on the way and admired all the houses that lined the coastline. It was crazy to imagine people living their everyday lives in such an incredible place. We found ourselves a spot on the beach and spent hours just hanging out in the water and talking. This beach was definitely more of a local spot, and we enjoyed people watching all the Sibenik residents. At one point, there were young boys sitting on nearby rocks descaling fish we had seen their father catch earlier. We assume they were helping prep for that evening’s dinner. It was cool to get a glimpse into the everyday beach life of the Croatian locals.

After a couple hours, we made our way back to the hostel via boat and got ready for dinner. Megan, Taylor, Rachel, and I went out for pizza together at a restaurant Taylor had gone to with her family the night before. It had also been recommended to us by our friend Verity (better known as Clippy for her slippery hair clips) that we met at the hostel pool the day before. The restaurant, Azimut, was right in front of the entrance to the St. James Cathedral, where our second performance would be. We got lucky and snagged the one and only mushroom table. Yes. Our table and stools were all designed to look like red and white spotted mushrooms. It was so adorable, and it made for the best dinner setting. Imagine this… You’re eating margherita pizza and sipping on a cocktail in front of a beautiful cathedral with friends as the sun sets. It truly doesn’t get better than that.

During our dinner, we kept checking our cast group chat because we knew that we would be having a late night rehearsal that evening at St. Michael’s Fortress. Because the fortress and stage are outdoors, we couldn’t set any of our lighting cues during the day when the sun was out, which was why we had to wait until the sun had set before we could have our tech rehearsal. We were going to be the opening number for a Hungarian company. Since they were the main act they got to do their tech rehearsal first. They were allowed to take as much time as they needed to set their lighting and rehearse. Since we didn’t know when the Hungarians would be done, we also didn’t know how late our rehearsal would be starting.

We ended up meeting in the hostel lobby at 11:45pm and started walking up towards the fortress. When we got there, the Hungarians were still rehearsing so we just hung out and waited. Around 1:00am, we were let inside the fortress to sit in the audience while the Hungarians finished up. They were taking their sweet time doing a cool down stretch on the stage while we waited patiently to start our 1:30am rehearsal. I feel like they could have done their cool down stretch off the stage perhaps… so that we could get started a little sooner… but it’s fine! Take your time!

When we finally took the stage at 1:30am, we were surprised to feel that the floors were bouncy. The Hungarian company’s performance was a mixture of dance and acrobatics, so we learned that underneath the marley flooring was what we called “the daycare floor”. Picture the foam alphabet letter flooring tiles that fit together like puzzle pieces. That’s what was underneath the marley. It was not what we were expecting, and the bouncy floor combined with the midnight winds made for a rough rehearsal. We walked through all of our spacing as Kate set our lighting cues and we tried to adjust our bodies to be able to balance on the bouncy floor. I honestly was feeling really stressed because I could barely stand on two feet without losing my balance.

We wrapped up rehearsal at 3:30am. Earlier in the day, we were kind of annoyed that we would have to rehearse at midnight (which ended up actually being 1:30am), but in the end it was really fun. At one point, I was sitting in the audience while a piece I wasn’t in was on stage. I was watching my friends rehearse and looked up and noticed the stars. The stars were so bright and beautiful, and I remember my mindset totally switching. What a unique and special experience it was that we were getting to have a tech rehearsal in a Croatian fortress in the middle of the night underneath the stars. We didn’t get back to the hostel and into bed until nearly 4:00.

Monday, July 25

I must have been so tired from our late night rehearsal that I was able to sleep in despite the heat and lack of air conditioning. We all planned on having a pretty lazy and chill day before our performance that night. I woke up around 11:00, and having missed the hotel breakfast, went to a juice shop in town with Taylor. We both got yogurt bowls and smoothies. I ran some “errands” to pick up my souvenir magnet and grab some snacks before starting to get my hair and makeup ready for the show.

We all walked to the fortress together for a short rehearsal on stage. Luckily, after a good night’s sleep and without the middle-of-the-night winds, we all felt much better about the floor situation. We had settled into the bounciness and were no longer being blown off our own two feet. We ran through lifts and did a hard mark of our 20 minute show. We then had to vacate the stage for the Hungarians’ rehearsal. We settled ourselves into the dressing room area downstairs and had some time to kill before the show. A few of us walked back into town to get sandwiches for some pre-show energy and bought St. Michael’s Fortress merch to take home with us.

As showtime got closer, we started getting our costumes on and putting the final touches on our hair and makeup. We did our cast huddle in the dressing room with Kate, and she reminded us to just take in every moment and enjoy ourselves. We all put our hands in and chanted “idemo KJS!”, which means “Let’s go KJS!” in Croatian, before heading backstage. I remember waiting in the back stairwell stealing glances at the audience as we waited for the lights to go out. We were waiting in the wings when the lights dimmed. We all squealed and grabbed each other’s hands to a whispered chorus of “oh my god!”s and “let’s go!”s and “it’s happening!”s.

We dropped hands and quickly collected ourselves before making our entrance. Our show starts with us in one long line at the very front edge of the stage with our eyes closed. I love starting our show that way. It feels so powerful and intense. When we finally open our eyes as the music changes, we could see every audience member’s face. It was a full house.

I get so incredibly nervous before I perform. I mean like “going to pee my pants, can’t sit still, heart is going to burst out of my chest” kind of nervous. But once the music starts, I’m fine. I remember feeling so energized, yet so calm during our show. Our opening number “Dream State” is my favorite piece in the whole show. It’s powerful and intense and dynamic. At the climax of “Dream State”, I am in the front corner of the stage and we do what we call a “spoke and morph” starting in one corner and slowing rotating to the other corner. As I stuck my arm out to hit that movement, I could see at least three SDF representatives crouched at the corner of the stage filming and photographing our performance. The photos below were taken by SDF staff during our show and posted on their Instagram.

While the crowds in our hometown shows had been loud and vocal cheering us on, our Croatian crowd was not. It’s interesting how different the culture is. They were certainly enthusiastic though! To make up for the lack of cheering during the dances, they clapped extra long and extra loudly in between each piece. We could really feel the crowd’s energy by the time we got to our show’s finale, “I Am Here”. This piece always makes me emotional. Especially towards the ending of the piece when the music slows down. The lyrics are deep and our choreography is introspective and grounding. As P!nk repeatedly sings “I am here”, we are touching our body as if recognizing that “YES, we are HERE! In CROATIA! Dancing in a FORTRESS!” To no one’s surprise, this made me (and most of my castmates) cry on stage during the performance. But right as the song picks up again in what feels like a celebration, the tears dried up. When the music picks up, we all cheer and jump around together, patting each other on the back, and making eye contact before spreading out for our final dance sequence. That’s my favorite moment in the show because we get a moment to embrace each other and the moment, like “oh my GOD, you guys! We are HERE! We freaking did it!”

When our performance was over, we got a ton of applause and some audience members on their feet. We quickly ran off to get out of our costumes and into our cute outfits so we could watch the Hungarians. We were all pleased with how the show went, but it was bittersweet how quickly it was over. I wanted to do it all over again!

We got to watch the Hungarians perform underneath the stars, and they were great. After the show, we had several people from the audience stop to tell us how incredible our performance was and that they would be coming to see our full performance on Wednesday. My friend Meredith even got interviewed by a local journalist!

SDF was hosting a gathering for all the festival’s performers at the restaurant in front of the cathedral. There was free food and wine. We all made a toast to an amazing performance and spent the night celebrating.

Tuesday, July 26

Taylor, Megan, and I woke up bright and early to get breakfast before heading off to KRKA National Park to see the gorgeous waterfalls there. Taylor’s mom and cousin had come to Croatia with her. They had gotten a rental car, so the five of us piled into the rental car and drove about 45 minutes to the national park. There are two entrances into KRKA. You reach one of the entrances by boat and the other by bus. We wanted to go to the boat entrance because we had heard that the boat ride is beautiful. SDF was kind enough to give us dancers free admission to the waterfalls. However, when we got to the boat entrance and showed our SDF badges to get our tickets, they apparently only had the list of SDF participants for free admission at the other entrance with the bus ride. Luckily, my friend Ellery was able to talk to the employee (who was not happy with us) and convince her to let us in. She made a phone call to the other entrance to confirm that our names were on the list and let us in.

We were on the boat by 9:00am and got to enjoy the beautiful view on our way to the park’s entrance. We were under the impression that you could swim in the waterfalls because Kate and Bailee (one of my castmates) had gone and swam in the KRKA waterfalls in 2019. We were disappointed to learn when we arrived that they changed the rules in 2021 (there had been a fatal swimming accident at the waterfalls, so it was totally understandable). So no swimming for us! Despite that, the park itself was beautiful and extremely well kept. There were mini shops and food stands everywhere, small informational buildings, and beautifully maintained paths and bridges all throughout the area. The waterfalls were stunning, and we spent a good two hours walking around the entire trail, chatting, and enjoying all of the scenery. We got a quick snack before we made it back on the boat towards the parking area.

Even though it was only noon when the boat made it back, we couldn’t resist the gelato stand right by the exit. I was convinced by the vendor to try the green apple flavor, and it did not disappoint! I had never seen that flavor advertised before, but after trying it I started to notice it being sold everywhere. We drove back to Sibenik, and Megan and I spent the afternoon hanging out at the pool.

Megan, Rachel, and I found a restaurant along the waterfront for dinner. We sat right at the edge of the water with boats docked all around us. We enjoyed risotto and wine as the sun set over the beach. We walked back through the Old City to the most popular gelato spot. I stuck to my roots and got lemon again, and as usual it did not disappoint.

Megan left to head back to the hostel, while Rachel and I made the hike up to Barone Fortress to see one of the other SDF performances. That night, there was a collection of ballet duets being performed by Croatian ballet companies. We were able to attend the performance for free with our SDF Guest Performer badge. We met up with a handful of other KJS girls at the fortress to watch the show together. The performances were beautiful. Afterwards, we walked back down to the hostel and hung out on the terrace playing games before calling it a night.

Wednesday, July 27

We headed to Hotel Jadran for a quick breakfast before our morning rehearsal. Our full length performance was that evening in the St. James’ Cathedral Square. The stage was just being set up that morning because the area we would be performing in was normally a restaurant’s outdoor seating area. We rehearsed at 9:00am and were only able to do a quick walk through of spacing. The music and lights were not set up yet, so there wasn’t much more that we could do. We planned to meet back there closer to showtime to have a more in-depth rehearsal. We took some pictures on the stage and then were hurried off so the festival staff could roll up the marley just before the torrential downpour started.

It was raining most of the day, which was actually pretty nice because it helped cool down the air and minimize some of the humidity. My roommate Meredith’s mom had come to Croatia for our shows, and she was kind enough to offer up her hotel room for my roommates and I to get ready in because of its working A.C. Taylor stayed behind, but the rest of us walked to Meredith’s mom’s hotel to get ready in her room. Unfortunately, it started raining again as we were getting ready. We were starting to get nervous. Our rehearsal time kept having to get pushed back because of the rain. Our opening act would also need time to rehearse before us.

We all met at the stage and were able to get ourselves situated in the dressing room. The rain had stopped, and we were just waiting for the stage to get dried so they could roll the marley back out. The stage was basically being squeegeed to dry it as quickly as possible. We were finally able to take the stage and rehearse. It was getting to the time of day where the foot traffic by the cathedral really starts to pick up. Mass at the cathedral had just let out and more and more people were starting to walk by as they were looking for a dinner spot. We only ran through our opening and closing numbers, and we just marked them. But this was enough to draw quite a crowd. The sun had started to set, so it was getting dark, and Kate was playing around with the lights. People stopped to watch as we marked through our dances. When we finished, they applauded loudly and we made sure to go out and mingle with the crowd, telling them to come back at 10:00pm. We were telling them all “This was just our rehearsal! Come back for our full show at 10!” People were enthusiastic, and it gave them just enough time to get dinner before our performance.

We headed back upstairs to the dressing room, got into costume, and started warming ourselves up. Our opening act was an amazing group of hip hop dancers from Croatia. We were able to watch them before our performance. The area we performed in was almost like a 360-degree theater. People formed a crowd in front of the stage with the cathedral behind them. The restaurant we danced in front of was still taking customers so there were tables on either side of the stage for lucky audience members who got dinner and a show. The building behind us had staircases on either side where people gathered to watch too. That’s where we stood to watch the dancers who opened up for us. We cheered for them when they finished and then scurried to get in our opening line. We marched down the stairs, through the crowd of dinner guests, and onto the stage.

The show itself was a bit of a blur. I remember feeling a bit frustrated with myself because I think I was so excited and energized for the show that I didn’t really warm up properly. I hadn’t warmed up my core enough, and I was very wobbly on my legs. But I know I’m just being hard on myself. In hindsight, it doesn’t really matter because I was just enjoying every moment. I had originally pictured that when we performed, the cathedral would be behind us, but it wasn’t. We got to dance looking at the cathedral. I remember so many moments where the choreography had me looking out and up, which had me staring straight at the cathedral’s dome. I remember just thinking “oh my god, I’m actually doing this”.

Even though none of my family or friends were there, we all felt supported by my castmates’ family and friends who were there. We had gotten to know them all during the trip and they cheered for each of us, called out our names, and made us feel so supported. My castmate Lauren had four friends that came to watch, and they sat in one of the restaurant tables just next to the front corner of the stage. Lauren’s friend Avree filmed every dance, which was so incredibly nice of her because they had an amazing view. You can even hear them in the videos cheering for us all. We were also cheering for each other from the wings, which felt great to be able to do. We do that all the time in rehearsal, but Kate had advised against it during the St. Michael’s show since it was such a formal venue. I loved being able to cheer for my castmates and celebrate each other in the moment.

Just as I did during the St. Michael’s performance, I again cried during the emotional section of “I Am Here”. This time it felt even more emotional since it was at the end of our full show, and it was our final dance. It felt like a celebration of our entire journey to get here. We got to do our full bow sequence, where we each got to step forward and bow one by one. We gesture to Kate as well so she can get the applause she deserves for her incredible choreography. After our final bow, we all busted out dancing to “You Make My Dreams Come True” before coming together for a big group hug. We then spread back out to our bow line so we could each receive a pink rose from SDF to congratulate us on our performance.

And just like that, it was over! After all of the rehearsals and anticipation, the show was over in the blink of an eye. It went by so quickly, but I’m so proud of the shows that we put on. We all headed to the bar at Azimut (home of the mushroom table) for celebratory drinks. While we were there we even ran into our hostel pool friend Clippy/Verity, who had come to see our show and brought 10 friends with her. It was so nice of her to come. She and all of her friends had nothing but great things to say about our performance. It was so kind.

Thursday, July 28

Most of the KJS girls were flying home (or off to other European destinations) early this morning, but those of us that were staying had planned an island hopping boat day. The group for the day was me, Taylor, Taylor’s mom Perri-Anne, Taylor’s cousin Kristin, Meredith, Meredith’s mom Sheila, Kacey, and Kacey’s husband Mike. The eight of us were booked on an excursion to spend the day boating to nearby islands with stops for swimming along the way and an included lunch… or so we thought. It turns out that Taylor accidentally booked our excursion for the following day. We were able to get a refund, but there was no availability to reschedule for that day. The guy Taylor had booked through said he would reach out to some friends of his who also give tours like this and see if any of them were available today.

We were in luck! About an hour later, after we had had time to eat our chocolate croissants, our two Croatian boat guides arrived. Their names were Steepe and Duje. Steepe spoke Croatian and Spanish, and Duje spoke Croatian and English. Luckily, Taylor spent a semester in Spain so she was able to communicate with Steepe, who was driving the boat, in Spanish. The two men were nice enough to come out on their day off and give us an impromptu boat day.

We spent about an hour on the boat jetting away from Sibenik and into the open waters. Duje had a cooler stocked with Somersby Ciders, which he generously shared with all of us. We stopped somewhere in the middle of the water to swim for a while. The water was so clear and blue and warm. It was beautiful and perfect.

Our next destination was a small restaurant on an island way off the coast of Sibenik. It felt so far removed from civilization, and I loved it. We got family style servings of spaghetti and fresh bread. It was cool to chat with Steepe and Duje, despite all the translations back and forth, to hear a bit about their lives in Croatia. They have both lived in Sibenik their entire lives and been friends since kindergarten. They told us stories about swimming into the coves as kids and climbing up the mountainsides. As hard as it is for us to imagine, they said they don’t see Sibenik the same way we do. Of course, they admit it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t have the same WOW factor to them, which is hard for me to wrap my mind around.

After lunch, we got back on the boat and headed off to another swimming spot. On the way, Duje let us use his phone to play music. We were blasting David Guetta, The Vengaboys, and so many other throwback jams. We were having the best time. Steepe even made a point to catch some waves so we could get a bumpy ride, which we loved! It was such a fun day. We made to back to Sibenik around 4:00pm.

I joined Meredith and her mom for one last meal in Sibenik. We ate dinner at one of the few rooftop restaurants in town. The view was beautiful, and I got pasta and wine, which were both delicious. The three of us took one last walk through town, ran into Kacey and her husband, and got one final gelato before calling it a night. Meredith and I packed our stuff up to get ready to go our separate ways the next morning.

I truly could not have had a more picture perfect week in Sibenik with my dance friends. Performing internationally has always been a dream of mine, but I didn’t know if it would ever actually come to fruition. I’m so grateful for this experience, and I just want to relive that week over and over again. I still can’t believe I did that! Especially since I had been sort of “retired” from performing since college, it was hard to come back and get myself in performing shape again. I’m really proud of myself, and I’ll cherish this week forever.