Profile of Jonathan Sham

Jonathan Sham was born in Philadelphia on September 12, 1991. All throughout high school he was on the cross country team for his excellent running skills. Jonathan attended Wilde Lake High School in Maryland and freshman year on he was 4th best in his school. Not many freshmen get well known at the state tournament, but Jonathan was one of the top freshman runners in the tournament and his name was known by some of the best runners in Maryland. Even though Jonathan was already an incredible runner, he would run 80 miles a week so he could improve for upcoming events. Running has always been a hobby that Jonathan has loved. Although he had a great passion for running, he soon found out that he had a greater passion for break dancing.
During his freshman year, Jonathan found that he was becoming interested in break dancing, also known as bboying. He was just slightly interested at first because it was something fun to do during freshman year. At this point, Jonathan still loved running, but was gaining an interest in break dancing. During an interview with him he states, “At that point in my eyes, I was a runner that break danced.” Break dancing allowed him to impress the ladies, as well as make him look cool.

Jonathan ran for the cross country team for two more years. Wilde Lake High School’s cross country team had won every meet for two years straight. They also were known for winning district championships, regional championships, and state championships. Their cross country team always trained really hard to they could keep up their winning streak, but during Jonathan’s junior year of high school, the Wilde Lake cross country team lost the state championship by one point. Everyone on the team was very upset and a lot of tears were shed that day. Jonathan felt as though he had worked so hard for nothing. He states in the interview, “This is what I feel as though started my depression.” Things got rough for Jonathan after his team lost the state tournament.

Problems started showing soon after state cross country tournament. Jonathan started having anger issues and became mildly depressed. After a five day suspension for hitting another student that was making racial slurs towards Jonathan, his parents decided to take him to get tested for ADHD. The results were positive and that was the reason for his behavior. Jonathan had a very hard junior year. The ADHD took him over and he would get really angry a lot. He would yell at some of his closest friends and storm out of his classes. Jonathan’s best friend, Ron Sun, was the only person that stood by his side through all of his problems. When Ron was asked about why he didn’t leave Jonathan, he responded, “When I found out he had ADHD nothing much really changed for me because either way he was still my best friend, I wasn’t about to stop because he had it.” Ron understood Jonathan’s situation and he was a faithful friend. Jonathan states, “At the end of junior year, I didn’t really have many friends, everyone still liked me kind of because of my crazy personality but they also saw that I was an angry person so they were skeptical about me.” This is when Jonathan decided he wanted to get back into break dancing.

At the end of his junior year, Jonathan made the decision that he was going to do Junior Dance Company because he wanted to improve his dancing skills and he thought it would be an easy class. He partied a lot over the summer and had fun while being able to show some of his break dancing skills he had acquired. Jonathan then started researching the culture of break dancing and hip hop. He never thought it would interest him that much, but he loved it and started dancing all the time. When school started back up, he started dancing in the Junior Dance Company and his technique was improved tremendously. Jonathan still liked running, but not as much. Over the summer of his junior year he didn’t run very often because of the loss the year before. While he was on the indoor track team, he started really thinking about running and break dancing. He realized that he didn’t have much interest in running anymore so he stopped running after that and just focused on break dancing.

Jonathan started break dancing with people from other schools because there were no break dancers in his own school. When being asked about break dancing he says, “From there I got better and better and while I danced, I felt happy all the time. I was always happy when I danced and found that dancing was like my antidepressants. I didn’t need them anymore and it made me feel better.” Break dancing made Jonathan feel so good about himself and all of his problems started to go away.

The break dancers from River Hill High School started training with Jonathan because there was an upcoming battle called the Battle of the Crews. They all really wanted to well so they could be known for their amazing break dancing skills and techniques. After this battle, a crew named Incredible Sushi Kings saw Jonathan and liked his break dancing ability, so they asked him to join their group. Things just kept looking up for Jonathan. He never believed he would become so happy after some of the things he had previously encountered. When asked about why he liked break dancing so much, he replied, “I danced to make people laugh, to make people feel better, and most importantly, to make myself feel better.” Break dancing took up much of Jonathan’s time and he didn’t get to hang out with friends as much. He didn’t really care too much though because break dancing had become one of the best things in his life. It helped him overcome the struggles he had been faced with. Jonathan knew he had problems, but he made the best out of the situation by doing something that made him truly happy all the time.