When nobody really listens to the words you say, you learn how to express your deep self in other ways, and for me, that was ballet.
People are so wonderful at accepting sign language as another way to speak and for me ballet was another form of non-verbal communication. It was a way to say things that the commercial world, the world of commercials, was rarely willing to hear.
I learned from an early age that my emotions were a thing to suppress, and so when the ballet teacher asked for them they came forwards as an untapped fountain and took all by surprise. The called this my gift. I called it my release.
You pay for everything one way or another. If you are lazy you will pay with the pain of failure. If you love to eat and indulge you will pay with the price of your health and self esteem. Yet if you love ballet, if you wish to fly as if God had remembered to sew on your angel wings, you will pay in the pain of training, in daily dedication, sweat and struggle. In this life, what are you paying for and how? The cost-benefit see-saw is always there.