Written by Emily Darmody
My week is all about balance from dancing, swimming, school work, homework and finding time to recover and relax. I dance 10 hours a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the Senior Academy. Evolve is like my second home.
Outside of school and dance I also swim, I swim Monday, Wednesday and Friday Mornings and I find this really helps my stamina and fitness for dance. While dance and swimming are big parts of my life I still make time for sleep, nutrition and recovery. I believe these 3 things allow me to maintain enough energy, happiness and willingness to give my best self in every aspect of my daily life.
Come along with me and find out what I get up to in "A week of my life"!
Monday
My week starts off with swimming in the early morning. After swimming head home and try to have a nutritious breakfast. In the Senior Academy, we learn about nutrition and what foods help you function and focus to your full capacity. I then get ready for school. At my school, we have 5 periods a day with lunch and recess in between these periods. After school, I catch a bus home and then have afternoon tea. I then find this is a good time to get any homework or study done, otherwise, I use it to either; rest and rejuvenate, go through some choreography or do some dance exercises to maximize my growth. Our family then usually has dinner at 7:30 together and then I get ready for bed and usually go to bed at around 9:30.
Tuesday
My Tuesday started off when I woke up at 7:00 to start getting ready for school. I had a shower, got dressed and all ready for school, then had breakfast. I then headed to school and arrived at 8:30. Some of the classes I had today included English, Maths, PE and art. When school finished at 3:10 I caught the bus home and started getting ready for dance. I got changed into my Evolve t-shirt and leggings and had a quick snack before dance. This usually includes a protein bar and a piece of fruit because I don’t have much time before I have to go. Dance went till 8:00 tonight and we did a range of different classes, Tuesdays is one of my favourite dance days. After dance finished I went home had dinner, a shower and went to bed.
Wednesday
On Wednesday I swim in the morning, so I woke up at 5:15 to get ready for swimming. Each session my swimming varies but I usually swim around 3 to 4km. After I finished at 7:00, I went home and started getting ready for school. On mornings that I swim, I try to have a healthy breakfast so this morning I had poached eggs on avocado toast. Then I went to school. My classes at school change every day so today I had; PASS, food tech, science, commerce and maths. After school, I caught the bus home and then had afternoon tea and got some homework done. I then had a shower, dinner and got ready for bed.
Thursday
My typical Thursdays start off at 7:00 when I wake up for school. The first thing I do Is have a shower and then get into my uniform, I also make sure to pack my sports uniform because I had PE today. Following this I make a healthy breakfast which today was a smoothie bowl. Afterwards, I pack my laptop, lunch, water bottle and pencil case into my bag and head to school. Today I have double PE, assembly, geography and RAVE. After school, I got picked up and we went home to get ready for dance. When I got home I got into my dance clothes and had some afternoon tea. I like to have something healthy because it will help me to give 100% of myself at dance. When I got to dance I stretched for a bit then we started. Every day is different at Evolve so we might be doing technique, contemporary, hip hop or lyrical. After dance, I went home had a shower and dinner then went to bed.
Friday
On Friday I had swimming again so I woke up at 5:15 like usual, I got into my swimmers and I was ready to go. Friday is usually an easier swim session than Monday and Wednesday so we ended up only doing 2.8km this morning. When I got home I had a shower, got ready and had breakfast. I made a smoothie bowl again because I enjoyed the one I had yesterday. Then I packed my bag and went to school. Today at school I had PE, rite journey, PASS, English and math. Following school, I caught the bus home and did some homework and stretched. Then I had dinner, got ready for bed and read a book right before bed.
Saturday
My typical Saturday starts off at 8:00 when I wake up to start getting ready for a full day at dance. First, I had a shower and got ready. Next I had breakfast, today I had a bagel with avocado and an egg on top. This will give me the right fuel I need for a full day of dancing. Following breakfast I made my lunch, today I’m going to buy sushi, so I just cut up some fruit and put in a protein bar. We left at around 9:30 and stopped past the shops to get sushi then we continued on to dance. At dance on Saturdays we do a range of different activities, styles and exercises. Some of these might include freestyle, choreography, partner work, creative work, fitness and much more. After dance, I went home and tried to relax. Then I had dinner watched a movie and went to bed.
Sunday
Today I woke up a little bit later at 9:00 and just relaxed for an hour. Then I made a smoothie bowl for breakfast. I find Sundays are all about relaxing and having down time so I can be prepared for the week ahead. But first I had to do a little bit of homework then I went for a swim in our pool and had lunch. After lunch I went for a walk with my dog and read some more of my book. Then I had dinner got ready for bed.
Wrapping Up
The structure I follow throughout the week really helps me to stay organised and balanced from having time to relax, to dancing & swimming and then finding time for homework & study. I feel like the variety of activities and work I do each week makes each aspect more enjoyable and doesn't make me burnt out or tired of doing the same tasks everyday. Overall I feel like this provides with me a great use of time management and productiveness which can help me in all aspects of my life!
