Misty Copeland

And somehow muster up the strength.

You were barely walking before you got up on stage.

Yes.

I mean, I found out in preparation for the performance that I have bone spurs in my left hip and a labral tear and loss of cartilage.

And my doctors, they were just like, I don't think this is a good idea for you to push for this performance.

And I said, well, I've already agreed to it.

And I'm definitely not going to wait any longer to get back on that stage.

So what can we do to make it happen without further injuring my hip?

So it's been a journey.

And I've been really good about pacing myself and in good health.

And then, you know,

about a month before a couple weeks out, I think my hip was just like, I can't tolerate anymore.

And it just got worse the closer I got to the performance.

And I actually was canceling rehearsals and pulling back on training up until the show because I was just, you know, trying to reserve my hip for performance.

Hmm.

I think that's something I learned as a child.

So many things in my childhood I feel like really, whether they're good or bad, they prepared me to be in this position.

I think about just always feeling uncomfortable.

whether it was in the living circumstances that we were in, in my own skin, feeling so much shame around not often having a home or food on the table, and so I didn't keep friends close.

I just felt like I was never comfortable and was always kind of dealing with that, navigating, but keeping a happy face on the outside.