Reclaiming My Inner Child Through Ballet

Coming to terms with mid-life in a ballet class with a bunch of pre-teen girls.

Author doing cartwheels on the beach in Tofino, BC, 2019 (Source: Abigail Carter)

I sat on a wooden bench waiting as several young ballerinas sat nearby, yanking off their boots and pulling the familiar pink slippers out of their bags.

I noticed their slippers had two crisscrossed elastics instead of the single one I…