Yesterday was show day, finally bringing my Culturama journey to an end. In preparation for the evening, we had a final rehearsal at lunchtime which all ran pretty smoothly apart from the fact some of the boys weren’t familiar with some parts. As a result, our leaders had to take initiative and polish things over quickly after school. Even though this wasn’t part of the plan, adapting to difficulties along the road is one of the greatest takeaways of this experience. Nonetheless, after we put our costumes and makeup on we went into the auditorium to film. It was unfortunate that there weren’t many spectators, however it was encouraging that some atmosphere was generated by dancers from Tanzania and other staff members. Performance anxiety and mind blanking was one of my greatest fears coming into the entire process, therefore prior to going on stage I was feeling very nervous. However, I took this as an ideal opportunity to face my fears head on with confidence. I overcame this personal challenge through actually trying to enjoy myself and let my body move in accordance with muscle memory, rather than overthink each individual step which often leads to panic. As a result, I only experienced a very minor slip up with everything else going as planned. Previous to this filming I didn’t really think it possible for me to thoroughly enjoy performing on stage, but particularly in the last two runs I felt myself loosen up and truly embrace the dance. This was actually quite a liberating feeling, especially considering it was one shared with my fellow group members. All in all, the Culturama journey was not one fully anticipated (given for fluctuating covid restrictions), however was nothing less than exhilarating. I established strong friendships with people from different grades, learnt the value of collaboration and encouragement, and even proved to myself that I am able to overcome my fears through enjoyment.